


Fatal Innocence

by asroarke



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Law School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bellarke Endgame, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, POV Multiple, Past Abuse, Voyeurism, based on how to get away with murder, everyone is shady, jealous!Bellamy, mentions of abuse, no one here is a good guy, ok now there are MULTIPLE murders, several OCs - Freeform, smut starts in chapter three, technically two, there is AT LEAST one murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-01-30 06:03:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 25
Words: 184,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12647598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asroarke/pseuds/asroarke
Summary: “I’ll be fine,” she muttered, shaking her head as she opened the front door. And, there the body was, right where it fell. The others rushed in behind her. Raven took the trophy toward the kitchen, probably to wash it off. Monty and Bellamy moved toward the body, and she could see that Bellamy was thinking about using the rug to wrap him up in.There was no way in hell that all five of them were going to get away with this.The How to Get Away with Murder AU where they all become interns for Professor Kane, not expecting their semester to take such a deadly turn.





	1. A Night Lacking in Choices

**Author's Note:**

> Here comes the HTGAWM fic absolutely no one asked for.
> 
> So, I've been working on this one for a while. It's *heavily* influenced by HTGAWM. All the cases I use are going to be from it. Obviously, I'm gonna put my own spin on things. But, I'm no law expert, despite what freshman me thought after deciding to be pre-law, so I'm sticking pretty close to how the cases work on the show, so I don't mess anything up. 
> 
> I'm putting the major death warning on here, because there is a murder, technically two. Maybe more if I decide to lengthen this fic more than I've already done (we'll see). But, if you get worried about that kind of thing, I'll let you know that it's not a Bellarke death, and you'll know after the first chapter exactly who the two dead people are (one of which happens completely off screen, so don't worry too much about it.)
> 
> I have plans to put a good deal of smut in this fic, potentially for non-bellarke ships, but no promises just yet. If I do smut, I want to do it well. So, if I'm not in the mood to write it, I may just leave it out instead. 
> 
> Also, if you have read my previous stuff and have gotten used to my fast updates, keep your expectations low this time around. These chapters are going to be super long, and requires about the same level of research as Double Infinity did. I physically cannot do these updates as quickly as I have in the past, because of the length especially. I haven't figured out how frequently I will update this fic, but I think it's safe to say that there will be AT LEAST an update a week, if not two. 
> 
> You do not need to have seen HTGAWM to enjoy this fic. In fact, it'll probably be better for you, since you won't see some of the crazy coming. Just know that the main characters are all going to be super competitive with each other, almost ruthless. I'm formatting my chapters like the show formats episodes. So, there'll be a flash forward in the beginning to the murder night, then it'll flash back to the present, and, at the end, another flash forward to the murder night.

_Monty_

 

He was taking too long. Monty started pacing back and forth, trying to keep his breathing as calm as possible. No good would come from letting his paranoia take over. He exhaled, seeing his breath in the crisp air.

“He’ll be here,” Clarke whispered, for probably the hundredth time since they all sprinted across campus. Monty shook his head at her. They couldn’t just sit and wait for Bellamy to get back. They had been waiting too long for him, and for all they knew, he was turning them all in.

He glanced over at the others. Clarke was furiously rubbing her neck, as she searched the surrounding area for any sign of Bellamy. Raven was a bit twitchy, keeping her head down as she focused intensely at the ground. Murphy, who had just met up with them moments ago, seemed relatively calm… almost too calm. Monty wanted to scream at him. How could he be so calm after what just happened?

Monty’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out to see yet another text from Harper.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Raven growled, storming toward him. Monty put his hands up defensively. It wasn’t like he was about to confess over text to his fiancée about the incident at Professor Kane’s house. But, that didn’t stop Raven from wrangling the phone out of his hands.

She studied his phone carefully, before her furrowed brows were aimed back in his direction.

“Was he about to call someone?” Murphy snapped, crossing over toward them. This caught Clarke’s attention, who immediately jogged over to Monty’s defense.

“Just got a text from Harper. It’s not like I responded,” Monty replied, before he felt Clarke’s hand touch his shoulder. He jumped in response, which startled Clarke. But, he didn’t want to be touched. The mere thought of it made him sick.

“We agreed, no communication. I’m turning this off,” Raven muttered, and Monty let out a groan.

“I never agreed to that!” he spat.

“We voted without you, since you had a breakdown,” Murphy mumbled, pacing away from the rest of the group.

“Excuse me for reacting like a normal person would. Clearly, I’m not as used to this as you and Clarke are,” he growled, and Clarke stalked across the cold ground toward Murphy, probably to do damage control. But, Monty didn’t regret what he said. He wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for them. And, they were both staying a little too calm… which says a lot about what kinds of things they must have done before tonight.

“God, calm down. Stop being so fucking hysterical,” Raven snapped.

“You calm down!” Monty screamed, probably a little too loudly. Luckily, no one could hear them over the bonfire festivities.

“Keep it down,” a familiar voice whispered, and Monty turned to see Bellamy Blake jogging up to them, carrying something Monty never wanted to see again in his hand.

“No,” Raven snapped, gesturing at the blood-spattered trophy. Monty glanced around at the others. Murphy narrowed his eyes at Bellamy, but didn’t seem as alarmed to see the murder weapon in the hands of their classmate. Clarke, similarly, didn’t seem too concerned, but she looked pensive as she observed Bellamy.

“Take that back right now,” Monty snapped, and Bellamy glanced at Clarke, biting his lip slightly.

“No, we can’t leave it as it was. It would hurt the prosecution’s case if no one can identify the murder weapon,” Clarke explained. Bellamy and Clarke nodded at each other, and Monty wanted to scream. Of all the nights to be on the same side, they had to choose this one…

“Don’t go all law student on us, Griffin,” Raven muttered.

“Thinking like law students is what will get us out of this. We know better than most how not to get caught,” Bellamy growled, stepping in front of Clarke, glaring down at Raven.

“So, Blake, what’s your plan?” Raven asked, stepping up to him with crossed arms and defiant eyes.

“Clean it, put it back,” Bellamy shrugged, as if this could be that simple.

“You mean, after we go back for the body, right?” Murphy asked, and Monty felt his chest tighten. He shook his head rapidly, but no words came out. They weren’t stepping foot back in that house. He wasn’t.

“It is one of the craziest nights on this campus. Have you lost your mind?” Raven snapped, glaring right at Murphy.

“It would make for a good alibi,” Clarke offered, and Monty glanced up at her with wide eyes. “If we take some photos of all of us at the bonfire, and we can all back up each other’s stories.”

“And what if one of us doesn’t want to back up these lies?” Raven spat, and Bellamy tried to hold Clarke back, but she stepped around him quickly, no longer looking as nervous as before.

“Then, the rest of us pin the entire thing on the idiot who talked,” Clarke growled with a threatening look in her eyes. And, not for the first time, Monty could see what Roan meant when he alluded to Clarke having the most terrifying potential out of all of them.

“Agreed,” Murphy chimed in, and Raven opened her mouth to say something, but Bellamy shot her a warning look. So, she slammed it shut, looking defeated.

“So, we’re all agreed? Get rid of the body and hide the murder weapon in plain sight?” Bellamy said, glancing around at the others. Clarke was the first to nod… of course. It seemed like the two of them just decided to get along all the sudden.

“Why not,” Murphy muttered, and Raven gave a reluctant nod. Bellamy glanced over at Monty, waiting for his assent. But, he couldn’t bring himself to nod. He wasn’t the murderer here. He never agreed to killing a man. This wasn’t the kind of person he was.

Clarke strode over to him, as if she would be the one out of all of them that could get him to calm down.  He wasn’t going to let those blue eyes fool him. He had been watching her. Seen how everyone in that class underestimated her, seen how viciously she defended herself when interrogated… this girl was capable of convincing someone everything was okay as she slit their throat.

“The body is how we get caught,” Clarke explained calmly, evidently learning her lesson about touching him.

“The body is how you all get caught,” Monty snapped, and he could see Bellamy argue with himself about whether to step in.

“Monty, we don’t have time for this. We need to start moving before Kane gets back in that house,” Clarke warned, and Monty let out a huff, resting his hands on top of his head.

“No, I had no part in this. I’m not helping you,” he said, shaking his head.

“Really? Because when the officers show up at my apartment, I’ll have to tell them that it was all your idea,” Murphy said smugly, sauntering over to him with a smirk. Monty’s eyes widened as he glanced back at Clarke, who was looking down at the ground and sighing.

“We were all so scared that you would come after us next. I think a brainwashing defense would work here,” Raven joined in, cocking her head to the side as she glared at him. Monty looked at Bellamy, whose jaw was clenched.

“I think he gets the point,” Bellamy groaned.

“Not to mention, I have your phone. I could turn it back on, make a few phone calls from inside Kane’s house. It wouldn’t be too much work to place you at the crime scene,” Raven continued, before Clarke whipped her head around to look at her.

Monty forced himself to take a deep breath, before closing his eyes.

“Monty, none of us would do that to you,” Clarke whispered.

“Before tonight, I thought none of us would…” Monty trailed off, his mind flashing to the spattering of blood across the wood floor. He knew that they had no choice. He did. He just couldn’t believe that just hours ago his biggest concern was whether he and Harper were rushing into things. Now, his biggest concern was if Harper would even visit him in jail, after learning what he and the others did tonight.  

“I know, I know,” she said softly, and Monty finally forced himself to open his eyes. Bellamy was now standing beside Clarke, but his gaze wasn’t on Monty. It was on Clarke… more specifically, her neck. Monty forced himself to glance at Clarke’s neck, the gruesome reminder of how close they all were to dying that night. “We need you, Monty. Everything is going to be okay. I promise.”

Monty finally glanced back at Bellamy, trying not to fall victim to those persuasive blue eyes. Bellamy unclenched his jaw, before raising an eyebrow at Monty.

He let out a breath, before giving in and nodding. It felt freeing, almost. Like he had a say in how his life fell apart. A choice, on a night lacking in choices.

 

**Four Months Earlier**

 

_Murphy_

 

Of course, he was going to be late. However, he wasn’t going to be that asshole who awkwardly jogged across the campus… instead being the asshole who ignored the nice girl passing out the missing person fliers for that Wells Jaha kid. But, it wasn’t like Murphy didn’t have that guy’s face memorized after weeks of seeing it splattered across the news.

Maybe if his new neighbor hadn’t been blasting that music so late last night, he would have gotten to sleep earlier and wouldn’t have overslept. God, even when he asked that Emori girl to turn it down, she wouldn’t. But, that was a problem for a later time.

Luckily, the building was closer than he thought. He followed the crowd of students piling into the lecture hall, hearing nervous chatter amongst the bodies as he pushed his way in.

Once inside, he made his way to one of the seats in the back, since he was never going to be one of those suck-ups who needed the extra face time with the professor. Especially not with Professor Kane. Considering that man’s reputation, Murphy would be okay if Kane never even knew his name.

A taller guy slid into the seat next to him, his hair dark and curly. But, he didn’t even spare a glance at Murphy. Just pulled out his phone to start texting. Being nosy, he peered over his shoulder to see him texting someone named Octavia.

“Telling your girlfriend you made it to school okay?” Murphy teased, which caught his attention.

“My sister,” he growled, before returning to his text message. Murphy leaned away from him, since he was clearly poking the wrong bear.

Murphy had no idea what to expect here. Hell, just a few days ago, he was going to start applying for the few jobs that his useless undergrad degree would make him hirable for. He never expected that being on the waitlist would amount to anything.

“I suggest you all sit down,” a voice growled, and Murphy’s eyes darted to the front of the lecture hall, seeing an older man throw his briefcase onto the front table. The muffled voices of the room died down immediately, and all Murphy could hear was the frantic sound of chairs squeaking all at once. This was him. This was Marcus Kane.

Murphy suddenly remembered that he was in school, and frantically started pulling out his notebook and pen.

“Now, I can tell by the nervous faces in the room, that most of you know who I am. Good,” Professor Kane started, smirking around the room. Murphy saw two other people, a bearded man and a slim woman, up there with him, pulling out papers for him. They looked a bit older than Murphy, but not by much. “I’m not here to be your friend, or your mentor. I am here to teach you how to practice law, and you are here to learn. So, welcome to Criminal Law 101,” he said with a smirk, and Murphy glanced over to the two people assisting him. The woman rolled her eyes, as Professor Kane uncapped a black marker. “Or, as I like to call it,” he teased, before turning around to write on the board.

Murphy glanced around the room, noticing the rest of his classmates completely enraptured in this man’s words. If he could do this to a room of entitled law students, no wonder he had gotten so many murderers off.

When Murphy glanced back at him, the words _how to get away with murder_ were written on the board behind him. He swallowed, studying Kane’s smug face as he looked back at the room.

“Now, I’m assuming you all printed out the packet I emailed you,” he announced, and Murphy immediately leaned down to fish the crumpled papers out of his backpack. “Let’s see who actually prepared… “ he muttered, picking up a sheet of paper before reading off, “Raven Reyes, talk to me about the first case.”

Murphy yanked the papers out, cursing himself that the corner was ripped. He really needed to get some damn folders.

“Zoe Monroe is on trial for the murder of Shawn Gillmer. She worked as his personal assistant to Mr. Gillmer for several years,” the girl that Murphy now knew as Raven Reyes said. He could only see her back, since she was standing up several rows in front of him. Kane nodded along, as he flickered his slide show on, showing the defendant standing beside the victim. “The prosecution has argued that their relationship was not entirely professional. However, Ms. Monroe has claimed that she was a victim of sexual harassment, not his mistress.” Kane nodded at her, and Raven sat down, relaxing into her seat as she did.

“Neither side has been able to prove either, but the court of public opinion assumes mistress,” Kane said with a shrug, before he picked up the roster again. “Now, Monty Green, tell me what happened when people started finding out about the alleged affair.”

A man off to Murphy’s left stood up, looking a bit shaky. It was clear that this guy went out of his way to dress well for his first day of class… which was, in a word, adorable. “She was moved to another department, and coerced into signing a non-disclosure agreement by the company’s legal department,” Monty explained, sounding far more confident and composed than his shaky legs made him seem.

“Thank you,” Kane said with a slight nod, seeming to be merciful to the more nervous of the classmates. Kane’s attention was back on the roster as he scanned the list. Then, Murphy swears he saw the man smirk, before he glanced up. “Clarke Griffin,” he said, and a blonde girl seated next to the wall stood up, looking far more confident than Monty Green. Kane looked at her, almost sizing her up, and Murphy furrowed his brows in confusion. “I do hope that the daughter of Jake Griffin came prepared for class.”

Murphy immediately heard a groan beside him, and glanced over to see the agitated man next to him clenching his jaw.

“Do you know her?” Murphy whispered. The man’s dark eyes flickered to him with annoyance.

“The princess whose entire family got their law degrees here? No, not personally,” he growled, and Murphy quickly turned back around. He made a mental note to pick another seat next time.

“How did Mr. Gillmer die?” Kane asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Allegedly, Ms. Monroe swapped one of his regular medications with aspirin, which the victim was allergic to,” she answered quickly, and Murphy furrowed his brows at her. She really didn’t seem like anything special. Probably just another rich girl who got in when her family pulled some strings. This room was full of girls just like her. He glanced back at Kane, who kept his brows raised at her, almost challenging her. “Mr. Gillmer went into anaphylactic shock, deprived of oxygen. When his new assistant came into his office, he was already dead.”

Kane kept his eyes on her, and Clarke Griffin started to sit down, just like every other person he called did. “What was the intent?” Kane asked, keeping his eyes locked on Clarke, who stood back up quickly, looking a bit annoyed.

“Allegedly, Ms. Monroe wanted to kill him,” she said, and Murphy could see a few people in front of him whispering. Kane kept his eyes on Clarke, though. Murphy noticed Kane’s two assistants exchanging an annoyed look, and he wondered if this was a similar tone he used on witnesses in the court room.

“And, do you know if she was found guilty?” Kane asked with a smirk.

“No, and neither do you,” Clarke replied with a grin, and for a split moment, Kane looked surprised. “It’s an ongoing trial. And, I hear the original defense attorney dropped the case.” Kane nods quickly, before moving back toward the center of the classroom. Murphy started flipping through the pages of the packet, wondering how he missed the fact that it was an ongoing trial.

“Correct,” he finally says, as his eyes scanned the entire room. His eyes met Murphy’s for a split second, and Murphy nearly had a heart attack. “Ms. Monroe is now my client. And, you’re all going to help me win the case. You have all the information you need in the packets I sent you. Tomorrow, each of you will pitch your best defense to me. And, no one defense can be used twice.”

Murphy swallowed, realizing that he had less than twenty-four hours to come up with at least a hundred defenses, since there were easily one hundred classmates who could easily go before him. If this was any predictor for how this class went, he was never going to sleep again.

“I’m not using this little exercise to get you all to do my work for me. I already have a plan, and it’s not likely that any of you will beat mine. But, this is how I decide who to invite to work at my firm for the year. So, impress me,” he said with a smirk, but Murphy could care less about that. He just wanted to fly under the radar as much as possible.

Then, he heard his male assistant mutter something to him, before the woman started pulling something out of his briefcase.

“Right,” Kane said, before crossing over to them. Then, Murphy saw a heavy-looking golden trophy being placed into Kane’s hands. “The top student will get this. Think of it as a get out of jail free card,” he joked, earning a few forced chuckles. Murphy looked around the room. The Monty guy was furiously writing things down, but he clearly wasn’t taking notes. Murphy swallowed, realizing that he was already preparing for tomorrow’s class. “Whoever has this in their possession can use it to get out of an exam or assignment at any point in time. So, be smart, and work hard. This could save a life.”

 

_Marcus_

 

He got another text from Thelonious. He forced himself to take a breath before calmly replying that he would get back to him after his class. He felt bad, since he hadn’t been the best friend since Wells went missing. But, he was busy, and there was nothing he could do to help Thelonious find his son. As he approached the classroom, he saw Roan and Echo waiting for him, both looking a bit weary after the long session the night before.

“Think any of the children will beat you this time?” Roan teased, and Marcus couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

“That’d be a sign it’s time for me to retire,” he joked, but Echo didn’t seem amused. “What?”

“Nothing,” she shrugged, and he raised an eyebrow at her. “I just wouldn’t get too cocky. At least one of them seemed impressive yesterday.” Marcus immediately rolled his eyes again, before pushing past her to open the door. He knew exactly what student she was talking about, and it wasn’t that impressive. Clarke just did the reading like she was supposed to. It wasn’t like she was God’s gift to law like her father allegedly was.

Upon entering the lecture hall, he heard the familiar sound of students frantically getting into their seats. He vaguely remembered his own professor back in the day giving them a similar test, and how convinced he was that he would beat out the others. He didn’t, of course. But, he came close. Just behind Jake Griffin and his future wife, Abby.

He let a few of the weaker links of the class go first. They were easy to spot. Nervously clicking their pens, frantically reading over their several strategies… Marcus Kane knew how to spot weakness. A few of the strategies were interesting, although they sounded a bit like strange plots from Monk.

“Bellamy Blake,” he read off, and a taller young man in the back of the class stood up.

“Argue that the intent was not to kill. Monroe could have just wanted to hurt him, or give him a scare. If she was his mistress, she cared about him too much to ever want to kill him. More importantly, you could argue that she was not aware that his allergy was so severe that it would kill him. So, murder is not appropriate charge, and therefore, she would be deemed not guilty,” Bellamy explained, and Marcus could see several students start crossing that defense off their list. Marcus gestured for him to sit down, just like everyone else who gave a decent defense.

He kept going down the list, trying his best to not look bored during some of the weaker arguments, before sending them off to the side of the room. “Monty Green.”

He noticed that Echo had started jotting down notes as soon as he started talking, and he was a bit grateful. Some of the students pointed out little details that they missed… details that would probably be helpful if his plan didn’t work out, like the discrepancies in the autopsy that Mr. Green noticed.

Once he got through half the class, he decided to finally call on Clarke Griffin.

“Offer the jury another suspect,” she announced confidently, and Marcus swallowed. She was just a little too close to his plan. Then again, she was raised by two ruthless defense attorneys. He should have known better than to bet against her, especially with how quickly she came back at him the day before. “Mr. Gillmer’s wife, who would have been outraged upon hearing about the affair. She had motive, and she had access. I’m pretty sure it was Bellamy who mentioned that Ms. Monroe might not have been knowledgeable about how allergic he was to aspirin, but his wife would have been, making her far more likely to have done it with the intent to kill,” she kept talking, and Marcus couldn’t help but sneak a glance at Bellamy, who looked a bit annoyed that Clarke used his own argument to bolster her own. But, Marcus said they couldn’t repeat arguments… he never once said they couldn’t build on them. And, he couldn’t help but grin at Clarke. The girl was smart. “Plus, she could easily frame the mistress for the murder, which would allow for her to revenge on the both of them in one move.”

“You can sit, Ms. Griffin,” Marcus announced, unable to ignore a small feeling of pride. He was glad this Griffin worked just as hard as the others. He had seen too many legacy students try to coast in his classes before. He liked how Clarke fought.

As he whittled down to the last of the students, he had to fight to keep his eyes open. There was too much stumbling, too many students who hadn’t considered that someone else in the room would come up with their same boring defense strategy.

As he predicted, Raven Reyes came up with a mildly interesting plan. It wouldn’t work, but it was more plausible than the Stockholm Syndrome argument that the frat boy before her gave, so he let her sit down with the others.

When he got to John Murphy, Marcus didn’t hear a word the boy said. He had gotten a brief glance at him the day before, recognizing him immediately, even after all these years. Whatever argument he was giving sounded concise, even if Marcus wasn’t hearing the actual words. He gestured for him to sit down, hoping that Roan and Echo didn’t question that decision. That was the last thing he needed to explain.

Once everyone had gone, there were only a handful of students left seated.

“All interesting ideas. But, none as effective as mine,” he explained, before sitting down on top of the front table. “The first thing we do is get rid of the witnesses. Make them out to be unreliable, find any detail that would make the jury question every word that comes out of their mouth.” He could see the students frantically writing this down, probably convinced this would be on the exam. Then, he glanced over at Clarke, still a bit bitter that she got so close to his plan. “Next, we’ll introduce a new suspect, but it’s not the wife.” There was a moment of recognition in Clarke’s face, and he could tell she knew just how close she was to beating his plan. She just picked the wrong suspect… only because she didn’t know as much about the case as Marcus did. “Finally, we start tossing out so much information that the jury is overwhelmed, unable to fully accept anything the prosecution has to offer. Sure, Zoe Monroe could have done it, and probably did,” he shrugged, and he could feel the nervous eyes on him, probably startled that Marcus so willingly accepted that one of his clients was probably a murderer. They’d have to get over it. Marcus knew for a fact that most of the people he got off were murderers. It was just a fact of his life, and he didn’t care. “But, if you send the jury into the deliberation with nothing but the feeling of doubt, she’ll go free. And that, students, is how you get away with murder. I’ll see what remains of you in court tomorrow.”

 

_Bellamy_

He recognized Zoe Monroe immediately, since the packet Kane gave them had numerous photos of her with the victim. Bellamy had gotten to the courthouse early, despite numerous attempt by Roma to slow him down that morning. He rolled his eyes at the memory, a bit irritated that she insisted on spending the night when he had work to do.

Then, Bellamy noticed Kane move away from Monroe for a moment, answering his phone. The defendant probably thought no one was watching her, but Bellamy was searching for any clue that could give him a leg up on the other law students still fighting for a spot in Kane’s firm. He noticed Monroe’s face shift as a woman started walking down the hallway, almost like she was comforted. Bellamy narrowed his eyes, realizing that the woman was Gillmer’s wife, who he recognized from the articles he read the night before. The two women exchanged no words, which shouldn’t be a surprise. Monroe was probably instructed to keep her mouth shut, especially in the courthouse. But, Bellamy knows what he saw. Gillmer’s wife offered Monroe the smallest nod, and Bellamy’s stomach started to feel tight.

He started walking down the hall, gesturing for Echo to talk to him in private. She looked unimpressed by his urgent beckoning, but it wasn’t like Kane was around for Bellamy to bounce this theory off.

“I think the wife and the mistress were in on this together,” Bellamy whispered, which immediately earned a groan from her. “No, I just saw them exchange a nod.”

“Oh, well that will convince a jury,” Echo smirked, shifting her hips as she crossed her arms. “Should we put you on the stand to testify to the head nod you saw?”

“Obviously, we need more evidence,” he muttered, glancing over his shoulder to see the rest of the remaining classmates start to show up. “But, it’s another way to argue the case. Monroe was coerced into killing Gillmer by his vindictive wife. A jury would eat that up.”

Echo didn’t respond to this, just narrowed her eyes back at him. But, Bellamy knew he was right. That nod was a gesture of support, a way to encourage Monroe to keep going and not to rat her out.

“Nothing you’re telling me is new information. Back to the drawing board, Blake,” Echo growled, before stepping around him and walking toward Roan. Bellamy swallowed, taking this in. Kane already knew.

When the trial started, Bellamy was seated a few rows behind the defense team, with the other students. There was an empty seat to his right, which was almost taken by that guy who sat next to him the first day of class, before he apparently thought better of it.

“According to witness statements, you didn’t care much for my client, isn’t that correct?” Kane asked as he strode toward the witness.

“I wouldn’t say that,” the witness stated, and Kane cocked his head to the side slightly. Then, Bellamy heard the door open in the back of the room. He turned, seeing a flash of blonde dart down the aisle toward Echo and Roan.

“Princess has lost her damn mind,” Bellamy muttered to himself, earning a snicker from the guy to his left. He watched her closely as she whispered right into Roan’s ear. Kane seemed intrigued, before darting over toward them, pausing his line of questioning. Then, Roan started grinning, before whispering what Clarke said to Echo. Professor Kane and Clarke exchanged a few quick words, and the judge started to look agitated. Then, Kane threw the papers he had been holding toward Roan, as he smugly turned back around.

And, Bellamy hated the smug look Clarke had as she strode down the aisle and took the seat right next to him. There was a part of him that pettily hoped she tripped in her ridiculous heels.

“Sorry for the delay,” Kane said apologetically, as he crossed back over to the witness.

“Did you steal someone else’s argument again?” Bellamy muttered, shaking his head.

“Didn’t steal your argument. I improved it,” Clarke whispered, and Bellamy scoffed.

“In your original testimony, you said that you saw the pill on Ms. Monroe’s desk just hours before Mr. Gillmer was pronounced dead, is that correct?” Kane asked.

“Yes,” the man replied with a small shrug.

“What color was it?” Kane questioned, cocking his head to the side.

“Yellow,” he answered.

“Oh, like the color on Prosecutor Byrne’s shirt?”

“Yes.”

Bellamy’s eyes widened, since Byrne’s shirt wasn’t yellow. It was a pale blue.

“Holy fuck,” Bellamy whispered, glancing over to see a smug smirk from the damn princess.

“Her shirt is blue. Are you colorblind?” Kane asked, and the witness’ face turned pale. And, Bellamy could already see the witness testimony unravel. There’s no way he could verify that the pill he saw was aspirin.

“How the fuck did you do that?” Bellamy growled, turning to look at Clarke.

“Well, for starters, I didn’t go out and pick up a sorority girl last night, giving me ample time to do my research,” she replied, cocking her head to the side. Bellamy opened his mouth to ask her how she knew that, but she spoke before he could ask. “You missed a bit of the lipstick on your neck.”

He started rubbing at his neck, cursing himself for missing that. The rest of the session seemed to go by in a blur, the prosecution reeling from the discrediting of their star witness. As soon as a recess was called, Roan made his way back toward Clarke.

“Alright Griffin, how did you catch that?” he asked, narrowing his eyes down at her. Clarke crossed her legs, leaning back in her seat.

“He wore glasses back in his profile photos in 2008, so I tracked down his optometrist and pretended to be a claims provider. I figured that if he had bad eyesight, we could argue that he didn’t actually see the pill correctly. Turns out, he’s colorblind, meaning he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between aspirin and any other similarly shaped pill,” Clarke bragged, and if Bellamy didn’t hate her before, he sure did now.

Bellamy glanced behind him, noticing both Monty and Raven looking things up on their phones. He should probably be doing the same, since the most he offered Kane was a relationship between the defendant and the victim’s wife that he apparently already knew about.

“Did you really pretend to be a claims provider?” Bellamy whispered as soon as Roan went back toward Kane, and Clarke turned toward him, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes,” she replied.

“Your family teach you that trick?” he muttered, shaking his head.

“No,” she snapped, and he could hear in her voice that he was getting to her. He couldn’t help but smirk.

“Sure, they didn’t. Just like they didn’t get you into this program,” he teased, but her face shifted. She wasn’t as rattled as he thought… no, she was composed, just like she was when Kane practically interrogated her in front of the entire class on the first day.

“Let’s say they are the reason I got in. Even then, they have nothing to do with how I just got a spot in Kane’s firm, and you know it. I bet that’s killing you,” she growled, and Bellamy clenched his jaw as he glared back at her.

“You don’t know for sure he’ll pick you,” Bellamy argued, recalling how Kane seemed to be gunning for her since day one. No matter how impressive she might occasionally be, she was not favored by him, at all.

“Spoken like someone who has done nothing to get his own spot, and is lashing out at the person who just took one of the spots for herself,” Clarke smirked, turning back in her seat.

Bellamy reached down to pull out his research from his bag, ignoring the amused look from the entitled blonde beside him. He clicked his pen, focusing entirely on the words in front of him. He was going to find something to help the case. Because, he’d be damned if the entitled princess outsmarted him.

 

_Raven_

She checked her phone again, making sure she had the right girl. But, that was her. So, Raven made her way to the bar, making sure to pull her shirt down a bit before she sat down and ordered her drink.

Luna was prettier in person, Raven realized. Her Gillmer Industries I.D. picture did not do her justice, at all.

It only took a few seconds for Raven to notice Luna slyly glancing at her, and she had to struggle to keep her own smirk from showing up.

“Please tell me you didn’t come here by yourself,” Luna finally said, and Raven let out an exaggerated huff, as if she hadn’t specifically orchestrated their meeting to seem like it was a chance encounter.

“Well, it’s a long story,” Raven pouted, and Luna seemed to be intrigued by her performance, as she turned to face Raven. “So, it’s my first week of law school, and I’m already really stressed out. My friends and I all came out to let off some steam, but you know how it goes.”

“They ditch you as soon as someone cute shows up? I get that,” Luna offered with a smirk, and Raven playfully rolled her eyes. She felt a bit guilty, especially since almost everything coming out of her mouth was a lie.

“Well, I don’t mind as much if I also found someone cute. So, I guess I don’t mind tonight,” Raven said with a grin, and even in this dim light, she could see the blush creep onto Luna’s cheeks.

And, not twenty minutes later, Raven found herself pushed up against the wall of the elevator as Luna’s lips crashed onto hers. It took a few minutes for them to realize that no one had pushed the button. But, after several make-out induced distractions, the two of them stumbled into Luna’s apartment, clawing off what little clothes they had on.

“I never do this,” Luna whispered, before Raven pushed her backwards on her bed.

“But, it’s so much fun,” Raven teased, before kissing down her neck. Her skin was so soft under Raven’s fingers that, for a moment, Raven forgot the real reason she was here tonight.

But, once Luna was spent and asleep in her bed, Raven pulled the flash drive out of her purse, before putting it into Luna’s laptop.

The next morning, she slides the printed email she stole to Professor Kane, who had an amused look on his face as he looked it over. Roan glanced over his shoulder, looking less impressed… but, then again, Raven didn’t really give a shit if she impressed Roan. All she cared about was catching Kane’s attention.

“There is no way you got this legally,” Kane mused, before pressing his lips together.

“Doesn’t mean you can’t get creative with it,” Raven replied, cocking her head to the side. She could feel the eyes of her classmates on her, probably wondering what kind of power move she was playing. All she knew was that she got one of the spots in Kane’s firm, and the rest of them must hate her for it. Good, she thought.

She turned around to pick her seat. She ended up choosing the empty spot next to Clarke Griffin, who was smirking at her.

“Not gonna ask me what that was?” Raven asked, as she slid past Clarke.

“Well, we’ll all find out soon enough, anyways, right?” Clarke asked, and Raven narrowed her eyes at her. Raven might actually like this girl. Sure, so far, she was the biggest threat for the trophy, but at least she seemed to be a good sport about it. She couldn’t say that about the others.

“It was an email, right? How the hell would you get access to that?” Bellamy asked, leaning forward, his head now in between Raven and Clarke.

“A lady doesn’t kiss and tell,” Raven teased, which only caused him to let out a huff, before leaning back in his seat. Clarke seemed amused by the interaction, but she said nothing. Just faced forward, struggling to keep her smirk under control. “I think you and I should form a study group,” Raven decided, giving Clarke a once over.

“I take excellent notes,” Clarke offered, moving her knees so Monty could slide past them.

“And, so far, you’re the only person in this room I like,” Raven teased, and Monty let out a huff. “Okay, besides Monty. Can he be in our study group?”

“Sure, want in, Monty?” Clarke said, leaning forward.

“If Kane’s exams are as bad as people say, then hell yes,” Monty groaned, and Raven couldn’t help but chuckle.

“This plan will fall apart as soon as one of you gets the trophy,” she heard Murphy mutter in front of her, before turning his head slightly.

“Oh, I’m fine if Monty or Raven get the trophy, if it means their notes help me get an A,” Clarke replied quickly, but Murphy’s eyes were locked on Raven. She raised her eyebrows at him, challenging him.

“Not worried that the second the princess gets the trophy her notes will start slacking?” Murphy asked, and Raven could see Clarke’s jaw clench out of the corner of her eye.

“God, it’s Lord of the Flies already,” Echo groaned loudly as she marched past them to the defense table, wearing obscenely high heels. Then, she glanced back at them, raising a challenging eyebrow in their direction.

“You know, Echo isn’t a lawyer,” Clarke said, which caught Raven’s attention.

“Then, what does she do for Kane?” Raven asked, and she could see Bellamy’s head pop up behind them, looking intrigued by what Clarke said.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out,” Clarke said, cocking her head to the side as she kept her eyes on Kane, Roan, and Echo.

 

_Echo_

 

She was wrong to dismiss Raven so quickly. But, Echo wanted to know exactly how she got her hands on the email. Echo had done her research on Reyes, and knew that she didn’t have any sort of hacking background. Which meant that she knew someone who does, which could be a problem going forward. But, Kane didn’t specifically ask Echo to do anything about it, so she didn’t.

And, Roan fucking sold it when he said that the email was found in the folder with the previous defense attorney’s discovery file. Echo wouldn’t forget the smug look on Kane’s face as soon as the judge ruled the email admissible. They had won the damn case. All they needed was a simple email from a blackmailing employee to push the jury in their favor.

“Time to make our bets for the final three slots,” Roan joked as soon as they were outside the courthouse, watching from a distance as Kane spoke to the news crew on Zoe Monroe’s behalf.

“He was impressed with Green’s original argument. He notices little details. That could be helpful,” Echo shrugged, glancing toward the sidewalk where this year’s law students, or victims, as she likes to call them, were huddled together, probably discussing what the hell just happened. Then again, Echo responded similarly the first time she witnessed Kane keep a murderer from going to prison.

“Too nervous to ever be a good lawyer, though,” Roan mused.

“Corporate law would be a good fit for him,” Echo argued, and Roan raised an eyebrow.

“Alright, so, Griffin, Reyes, Green… who else?” he asked, and Echo started thinking back to the day they all presented their arguments. None of them really stood out this time, at least not for good reasons.

“For my own amusement, Blake. He keeps going after the Griffin girl, and she smacks him down every time,” Echo smirked.

“A girl after my own heart,” he joked, but Echo immediately smacked him in the chest.

“Please, don’t screw an intern this year,” Echo growled, as Roan put his hands in his pockets, shrugging slightly as he kept his eyes on the students.

“She is just my type,” he smirked, and Echo bit her tongue so that she didn’t point out that every woman was his type.

“Ontari would murder you,” Echo pointed out, and she heard Kane start to jog up to them.

“I haven’t heard from her in months,” he snapped, narrowing his eyes back at Echo.

“God, I can’t leave you two alone for five minutes before you start fighting,” Kane said with a shit-eating grin, and Echo cocked her head to the side. He seemed a little too smug for someone who only won that case because two first-years found information that he and Roan, both practicing lawyers, completely missed. But, what would Echo know? She’s just an assistant, after all.

“So, we gathering at the house to discuss the picks for the year?” Roan asked, and Kane blinked a few times, furrowing his brows at Roan.

“No, I’ve already made my decision,” he said, before jogging down the rest of the steps. Echo shared a glance with Roan, who looked just as confused as she did. There was no way in hell he could have picked already, not when only two of them actually proved useful. He needed to create another task for them, to get a better idea of who would be a good addition to the firm.

“Something’s off,” Roan muttered, and Echo nodded, watching Kane carefully as he gave a passing glance to the students. There was something very off about Kane.

 

_Roan_

He was flipping through the files Echo put together of the students Kane chose. Reyes and Griffin were obvious choices, of course. Although, he knew exactly how Clarke got her information. He questioned Raven, though. But, she delivered results. So, he didn’t need to ask questions… yet.

Green made a good amount of sense. He had a better transcript than anyone in the class, and Roan had noticed the kid’s detailed notes throughout the trial. As long as he spoke up about what he figured out, he would be an asset.

Then, there was Blake. Roan wasn’t as happy with this choice. Not because the guy wasn’t smart. He could tell he was. But, he had the benefit of going earlier when they all had to present their arguments… and he didn’t choose the strongest one. He picked a risky one, that could have been great if he had fleshed it out more. And then, there was his attitude. A chip on his shoulder that the file Echo had thrown together about the boy explained quite perfectly.

At least Blake made more sense than Murphy, whose file was the dullest of them all. In fact, Echo had basically nothing on the kid… which said something. His argument was bland and unimpressive, and it seemed like this guy wanted to fall into the background, not get thrown into this firm.

“Oh good, you’re all already in your seats,” Kane said smugly, marching into the lecture hall with amusement on his face. Roan narrowed his eyes at him, wondering what the hell he was up to. He was fifteen minutes late to class, which never happened.

“He was meeting with Jaha,” Echo whispered, and Roan’s eyes flickered down to meet hers.

“Again?”

“Not about Wells this time, though,” Echo said, shaking her head slightly. Roan swallowed, his mind immediately picturing the posters plastered around the entire city. He was just waiting for Kane to finally break down and tell Thelonious that his son was dead, that anyone who stays missing this long is dead somewhere.

“Did Kane finally hurt the right kid’s feelings and we’re all fired?” he joked, before Echo elbowed him in the side, gesturing for him to keep his voice down while Kane spoke to the students.

“And, there will be a quiz on Monday, covering the reading from this week. Now, onto who I am inviting to come work with us for the year,” Kane said, before picking up the trophy from the table. “The first person I am asking to join us was the standout in the trial, the person you should all make it your mission to destroy, Raven Reyes.”

Raven stood up and made her way down the steps toward Kane, who passed her the trophy… not that this girl would ever need the free pass to get out of an exam. She could probably ace every exam in her sleep. Roan had seen her LSAT score.

“I know how she got the email,” Echo whispered, and Roan turned around to look at her. “She screwed one of the girls that works in the I.T. department of Gillmer Industries.” Roan rolled his eyes, not sure he wanted to know how exactly Echo found that out.

“Not like you and I haven’t done that every now and then,” Roan teased. Hell, it was how he got his spot in Kane’s firm not too long ago.

“Speak for yourself,” she muttered, and Roan couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Also joining us will be Monty Green, Clarke Griffin…” Roan glanced over at Clarke, who was sitting off to the side of the classroom, her hair pulled out of her face today. He could feel Echo’s eyes glaring at him, so he quickly looked away. The last thing he needed was another comment from her. “… Bellamy Blake, and John Murphy.”

Roan spotted the Murphy kid in the back again, and he looked just as shocked as everyone else did that his name was called. He was about to say something to Echo, but she was busy looking down at her phone with a nervous expression on her face. He swallowed, not liking that look.

He could hear the faint sound of Kane dismissing the students, before he heard him stalk over toward them.

“What?” Kane snapped, but Echo stepped away to dial someone on her phone. Roan forced himself to take a deep breath, just hoping that was about one of their clients lying to them again. That, he could deal with.

The two of them stood awkwardly there, waiting for Echo to come back with an explanation, as the students filed out of the room. He accidentally made eye contact with Clarke while she was in the middle of what looked like another argument with Bellamy, and immediately glanced away.

“I’d go for literally any of the other interns if I were you,” Kane said, and Roan let out a groan. Kane and Echo treated him like he was the firm’s whore, always sleeping around with interns. He’s made mistakes, sure. But, he needed the damn benefit of the doubt.

“Can you stop?” Roan snapped, and Kane cocked his head to the side.

“No, I’m just warning you. Look at her file and see who her grandfather is,” Kane replied.

“Judge Griffin?” he asked jokingly.

“Her other grandfather,” Kane said sternly, but before he could pull the file back out to see what he meant, Echo stormed back over.

“You can’t tell Jaha what I’m about to tell you,” Echo murmured, and Roan looked around the room, seeing that all the students were finally gone.

“Your guy found the body, didn’t he?” Kane asked, and Echo nodded.

“The police probably won’t find Wells for a few more days, and Jaha needs to be surprised when he gets the call about his son,” Echo explained, and Roan felt sick to his stomach. That poor man had no idea that his son had been dead this whole time. And, Echo’s contacts probably still didn’t have a clue who did it.

“I’ll get to work on verifying Jaha’s alibi,” Roan muttered, and Kane snapped his head in his direction.

“Jaha didn’t murder his son,” Kane growled, and Roan threw his hands up in frustration. That wasn’t what he meant, at all.

“He could still be a suspect,” Echo defended him, but he could see Kane wasn’t having it. Roan nodded at Echo, since he was going to look into the alibi regardless of Kane’s approval. Kane didn’t get into these moods often… but when he did, it was infuriating. Here he was, a man who made his living convincing juries that his guilty clients are innocent… yet, he couldn’t imagine that Thelonious Jaha, who already isn’t the most upstanding citizen, could be as guilty as the people Kane defended.

Not that Roan thought Jaha did it. He wasn’t the kind of man who could murder, even though there were hundreds of other crimes they had all helped him get away with over the years.

 

**Four Months Later**

 

_Clarke_

“Wait,” Bellamy said, pulling Clarke back by her wrist. She turned around, furrowing her brows in confusion as he pulled his scarf from around his neck.

“Now is not the time for a wardrobe change,” Clarke snapped, as he handed it to her.

“Your neck,” he explained, his eyes looking down at her neck again, and Clarke felt like she was going to be sick again. When all of this was over, she would have to look in the mirror and see exactly what it was that caused Bellamy to look so terrified when he saw her neck… and she didn’t want to see it.

She tugged the scarf around her neck, ignoring the realization that it smelled just like him. “Thanks,” she mumbled. The last thing she needed was photographic evidence of what happened to her tonight. Might as well just give the inevitable prosecution their motive.

The five of them finally marched toward the bonfire, and Clarke was grateful that most people here were drunk as hell. They’d probably all think that Monty and Raven were high, and not worry too much about how they both looked exactly how nervous murderers look.

“I’ll take Monty, you deal with Raven,” Bellamy whispered right into Clarke’s ear, and she swallowed, before walking over toward Raven, pulling out her phone so they could take a photo with the bonfire in the background.

“Maybe we can do a transformation Tuesday with our future mugshots,” Raven joked, before Clarke elbowed her in the side.

“Whatever it takes to make you look like you aren’t about to bury a body,” Clarke whispered, as she held her phone up. Raven forced a smile and Clarke took a couple of shots.

“Go take one with your boyfriend next,” Raven muttered, as she moved towards Murphy. Clarke rolled her eyes, before searching around the bonfire for Monty and Bellamy. She finally found them near where the football team was gathered. Monty looked a bit better now, but still a bit shaky. She forced herself to take a deep breath before walking over to them.

“Can we go now?” Monty muttered, and Bellamy shot Clarke a warning look. Monty rolled his eyes before pulling the phone out of Bellamy’s hands. “Smile with your girlfriend,” he said mockingly as he held the phone up.

“Princess wishes,” Bellamy muttered, forcing a smile as he pulled Clarke toward him. And, she couldn’t help but elbow him, before plastering on a fake smile of her own.

As soon as the photo was taken, she pulled away from Bellamy, who seemed immediately annoyed. But, she didn’t care. She was done with the teasing, with the name calling. He didn’t get to just pick and choose when he was her friend, not tonight.

“Let’s go,” she growled, as Bellamy took the phone from Monty to upload the photo. Murphy and Raven jogged up to meet them, Murphy looking more flustered than usual.

“Time for the fun part,” Murphy joked, but Clarke just turned around and started walking. They didn’t have time on their side.

When they got to Kane’s house, only Bellamy’s car was still in the driveway. She bit her lip nervously, but she would back him up and say that he didn’t want to pay for parking just for the bonfire and Kane didn’t care. But, Clarke couldn’t help but feel uneasy that Kane was still out of his house. With everything that was going on, he should be at home working. Where the hell was he?

“You’re not going to freak out on me, right?” Bellamy asked, and Clarke glared back at him.

“I’ll be fine,” she muttered, shaking her head as she opened the front door. And, there the body was, right where it fell. The others rushed in behind her. Raven took the trophy toward the kitchen, probably to wash it off. Monty and Bellamy moved toward the body, and she could see that Bellamy was thinking about using the rug to wrap him up in.

Then, Clarke’s phone started buzzing. She pulled it out of her pocket, seeing it was Roan. She immediately glanced out the window, making sure that he wasn’t stopping by Kane’s house, but she saw no sign of his car, and let out a breath.

“I saw that,” Murphy whispered, before brushing past Clarke, and she clenched her eyes shut.

“Clarke, come on,” Bellamy whispered, and she opened her eyes again. She started moving toward him, stepping around the pool of blood on the ground. And, there it was. Thelonious Jaha’s cold, dead body.

There was no way in hell that all five of them were going to get away with this.


	2. Allegedly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking I could get another chapter up this week, but I'm not sure. Things are kind of rough for me right now, so don't hold me to that. 
> 
> Anyways, thanks for all the fun feedback last chapter! I'm glad you guys are excited about this story. I've been planning it out for a while, so I was nervous about how you guys would react.
> 
> No one has asked about this, but I thought I'd go ahead and clarify this preemptively. The flash forwards to the murder night are not necessarily going to be in chronological order. Some of them might be happening at the same time as other flash forwards, depending on the POV. The exact order of events could probably be guessed, but you'll see exactly how it all plays out when we get to the murder chapter.

_Echo_

 

She took another swig of the bottle of scotch she stole from Marcus’ cabinet. She glanced around her bedroom again, trying to see if she missed anything important. She had her passport, she had her money…

The only thing left to do was to make the call.

She stumbled into her living room, feeling her eyes start to fight her. It was too late in the evening. She had cried too much. She was too drunk. The second she sat on the couch, she could feel her entire body cry out in relief.

She stared at her phone, almost scared to pick it up. Echo knew that Kane would never forgive her if she did this. But, she also knew that it had to be done. Thelonious Jaha needed to go.

Before she moved to pick her phone up, it started ringing.

“Did you call to start screaming at me again?” Echo growled, standing up shakily.

“Please tell me you’re with Jaha,” Marcus said quickly.

“No, I’m alone in my apartment,” Echo stuttered out, shaking her head. He didn’t sound angry with her anymore.

“He’s gone, Echo,” he explained, and Echo slammed her eyes shut. She waited for the accusations, for him to tell her he was running to the police to turn her in. That’s probably what it looked like, and it wasn’t like Echo had an alibi. And Echo had already threatened to take care of Jaha before. “I don’t know where he went,” Marcus continued, his voice cracking as he spoke. “I confronted him about all of it, and I said I was going to turn him in. He was supposed to stay at the house, but he’s not here.”

“Take a breath,” Echo said, as she moved toward her kitchen, looking for her coffee machine in the dark. She needed to sober up, fast.

“I think he ran. I keep calling him, but he doesn’t pick up. He ran, Echo!” Marcus shouted, and Echo shakily braced her hands on the counter.

“We’ll find him. I’ll find him. I always do,” Echo whispered.

“I need you here,” Marcus demanded.

“I’ll be right there,” she said, before hanging up the phone. Then, a silent sob escaped her. He didn’t hate her anymore. He still needed her. He didn’t think she was a murderer.

She would go help him. He would forget all the horrible things she said to him, and all the lies. She would find Jaha for him, and then, everything will be okay again. Echo could do this.

 

**Four Months Earlier**

_Murphy_

“Well, I was reading a few articles about the trial, and pretty much everyone is saying that Pike is guilty,” Raven explained, sounding a bit out of breath. Murphy rolled his eyes. She was trying a little too hard to stay in step with Kane, who looked bored with her line of questioning. All of them were walking on the sidewalk, approaching their new client’s house.

“Get to your point, Reyes,” Echo groaned from behind them. Murphy glanced over his shoulder, seeing Echo walking in step with the princess.

“I’m just wondering, do you think he’s guilty?” Raven finally asked, and Professor Kane abruptly stopped walking, before turning around to face all of them. Monty nearly tripped over Murphy, not noticing that he had also stopped walking.

“I don’t care,” Kane finally said, as he glanced around at all of them. Raven opened her mouth like she had something she wanted to ask, but one stern look from Roan was enough to shut her up.

“What?” Monty asked, and Murphy elbowed him in the side quickly. Kane let out a huff, before looking over his shoulder at the client’s house.

Then, he turned back to glare at Monty. “Mr. Green, like everyone, my clients lie. They lie to me, they lie to detectives, they lie to their spouses… they lie. That makes them unknowable.” He turned around again, gesturing for all of them to follow him toward the house. “We can’t get caught up in who is guilty and who is innocent, because none of us will ever know for sure. Everyone lies.”

They were greeted at the door by Charles Pike, and Murphy had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at how nervous the other four were to be this close to him.

“My wife was the love of my life. We met at a conference almost 22 years ago. And I just knew she was the one for me,” Pike explained as he led the group of them up the stairs. Murphy remembered reading that most of his wealth was actually from his wife’s family… which explained how he had such an immaculate home. “Are any of you married?”

Murphy noticed Echo elbow Roan in the side, followed by Roan giving her a harsh glare. “Monty is engaged,” Raven teased, and Pike slowed his walking so he could walk in step with Monty, throwing an arm around his neck.

“So, at least you understand me,” Pike sighed, and Murphy couldn’t help but notice that Pike didn’t seem too rattled that his wife was dead. “There’s just this magical moment where you realize that the woman in front of you is the only woman for you. What’s her name?”

“Harper,” Monty said shyly, and the girls let a few “oohs” slip.

“Lovely name. Well, I hope you get with her what I had with my wife. To this day, she was the only one who could ever make me happy,” Pike mused, before moving away from Monty to unlock the bedroom door at the end of the hall. “At least, as happy as anyone could be when trapped in the horrific institution of marriage,” he added in, and Monty’s face went pale. Roan let out a snort, before giving him a sympathetic pat on the back.

“I asked Charles to preserve the crime scene so we could all take notes and look for anything that might help the case,” Kane explained, as they all filed into his bedroom. The first thing Murphy noticed was the blood on the ceiling.

“If you’re going to throw up, do it outside the room,” Echo muttered as she brushed past him. He took a deep breath, seeing blood spatter all over the walls and furniture. The others were already taking notes, and Raven was taking photos.

“Yeah, feel free to take all the pictures you need. Anything that will help with my case,” Pike offered, looking far too relaxed for someone who was on trial for murder.

“Why don’t we just go ahead with the demonstration?” Roan suggested, and Pike nodded. Murphy’s eyes widened, glancing over at Kane. What kind of demonstration were they talking about?

“I need a volunteer. How about you?” Pike asked, looking Echo up and down. “You look just like my third wife.”

“You’ve only had two so far,” Bellamy pointed out, and Murphy rolled his eyes.

“Maybe I’m just hopeful,” Pike smirked, and Echo’s eyes glared intensely back at him. Murphy suppressed a laugh, imagining that Echo could probably beat the shit out of Pike if she wanted to.

“What woman wouldn’t be flattered by being awkwardly hit on by a man who allegedly murdered his previous wife?” Clarke muttered, and Bellamy burst out laughing.

“Allegedly? Now who’s being hopeful?” Pike smirked, and everyone’s faces turned pale.

“I’ll be your volunteer,” Murphy finally said, figuring that the sooner he got what he wanted, the sooner they could all get out of the creepy murder room.

“On the bed,” Pike ordered, gesturing to the bloodiest spot in the room. Murphy took a deep breath as he moved toward it. “So, according to the prosecution’s theory, my beautiful wife,” Pike explained, gesturing to Murphy as he sat down on top of the bed, “was lying in bed.” Pike then gestured for Murphy to lie down, and his eyes frantically moved toward Roan, who looked like he was struggling not to laugh. “I joined her, allegedly carrying a knife from downstairs,” he continued, holding up a pen in place of the knife. “This is where I kissed her on the forehead, but I’ll refrain since this young man isn’t quite my type,” he teased, now lying a little too close to Murphy.

“Well, you could have bought me dinner first,” Murphy joked, and Pike erupted into an echoing laugh.

“Oh, I like you,” Pike teased, tapping the pen on Murphy’s nose playfully, before sitting upright. “Anyways, it was at this point where I decided to strike,” Pike said quickly, before hitting Murphy in the chest with the pen. “Blood started spewing everywhere, but she didn’t die just yet. So, I struck again,” Pike continued, hitting Murphy again in the neck. “And, again, and again,” Pike growled, his voice out of breath. Every time he said _again_ his pen struck a different part of Murphy. Every time there was a loud thump from his fist crashing into Murphy’s chest.

He just lied there, frozen in fear, as Charles Pike struck him with the pen a total of 23 times in the exact spot where his wife was murdered in the exact same way.

“And that, is how I murdered my wife,” Pike said proudly, as he climbed over Murphy’s body and got back on his feet.

“Allegedly murdered your wife,” Kane growled. Murphy sat his head up, making eye contact with Raven who had a horrified look on her face.

“Right, allegedly. Keep forgetting that part,” Pike joked, as Murphy shakily stood back up.

Once they were all done at Pike’s house, Murphy rushed home to get a jump start on his assignment for the case. For once, he didn’t hear the loud music coming from Emori’s place as he walked up the stairs, which was a relief.

He settled down on top of his bed, throwing what Echo called “the murder book” onto his bed. The murder book contained all the evidence that the prosecution was working with, and Murphy had to get his notes to Kane by midnight.

He was about halfway through the documents about the knife, when there was a knock on the door.

“Come on in,” Murphy shouted, not taking his eyes off the page.

“Hey, they’re working on fixing my bathroom right now. Can I use yours?” Emori asked, and Murphy’s eyes fluttered up to meet hers. She looked far less hostile now than she did earlier this week, when she practically growled at him when he tried to make conversation in the hallway.

“Yeah, sure,” he muttered, before forcing himself to look back at the murder book. He heard the bathroom door shut behind her, and then he noticed it. There were three officers at the scene, but only two names were on the report.

He was sending Kane a quick text about it, and barely registered the quiet _thanks_ from Emori as she left his apartment.

After a few hours, Murphy hadn’t found anything else important enough for Kane, but started writing up the email anyway.

That’s when he heard the phone ringing. But, it wasn’t his phone. He got up, following the sound to the bathroom. But, he couldn’t see a phone in there. He started frantically opening drawers and cabinets, before he found the phone buried under a stack of towels.

By now, the ringing had stopped. The glass on the screen was cracked and the phone was locked. Then, he remembered that Emori had been in there. He stormed out of his apartment before walking over to hers, and started pounding on her door.

“Emori, you left your phone in my apartment!” he shouted through the door, but he couldn’t hear her move toward the door. He let out a groan, realizing that she must have already gone to work.

He was about to leave the phone outside her door, when a text came in.

_Answer the phone, Wells._

Murphy swallowed as he read the message. It wasn’t Emori’s phone… but, he was certain that she had brought it over and hid it in his apartment.

 

_Monty_

 

“I need the supplemental arrest report for Charles Pike,” Kane muttered, not taking his eyes off his phone.

“Uh, okay,” Monty stuttered out, and Kane looked up at him, narrowing his eyes.

“I’m sorry, I need you to get me the supplemental arrest report,” he clarified, with a hint of bitterness in his voice. “Go to the police department, do not give your name or my name. Got it?”

Monty nodded frantically, before practically running out of his office. He had been a nervous wreck all day, especially after Pike’s little “demonstration.” This whole case made Monty sick to his stomach. The man stabbed his wife repeatedly and shows absolutely no remorse, and all of them are being bombarded with photos of the body and blood as they try to figure out how to get an innocent verdict.

“God, not you too. Why can’t Kane ever pick interns who have the stomach for this?” Roan grumbled, and Monty glanced over at him. He was sitting on the couch with Clarke, working on the prep questions for Pike. Monty and Raven tried not to roll their eyes earlier when Roan chose Clarke specifically to work with him on such an easy task.

“I’m fine,” Monty argued.

“None of us have the experience that you and Kane do. Cut him some slack. Normal people don’t just act normal around murderers,” Clarke snapped, glaring at Roan from the other side of the couch.

“Alleged murderers,” Roan corrected, cocking his head to the side as he glared back at Clarke. Monty took this opportunity to escape out the front door.

On the drive over to the police department, Harper called.

“Hey, what’s up?” Monty answered.

“How would you feel if I came up to visit you a week earlier than we originally planned?” she asked excitedly.

“Uh, I think that would work. We should be done with this case by then,” he mused. Although, Kane probably had a case lined up for right after this one was done. His biggest concern was that Harper would come down to visit during one of those crazy cases, and he would hardly get to see her.

“God, all you do is work for that guy. You sure this internship is good for you? How are you even keeping up with your school work?”

“Raven, Clarke, and I have a study group going. They take great notes. And, when things get to crazy with Kane, only one of us will go to the other lectures and take notes for the others. It’s working so far,” he explained, probably for the hundredth time. Harper had been very vocal about her dislike of this internship. She kept saying that Kane was working him too hard, that his grades were going to suffer. But, that didn’t really matter. Working for Kane was important for his resume. People who had worked under him had gone on to be some of the greatest attorneys in the state. This job, while horrible at times, would open every door for him.

“Alright. I can’t wait to meet all your friends when I visit,” she said excitedly, but Monty wasn’t sure he would classify these people as his friends. As soon as the trophy was up for grabs, he knew they would all be at each other’s throats.

“Babe, I gotta go. I’ll text you before I go to bed,” he said, before hanging up.

The woman working when he got there seemed exhausted, and frustrated.

“No, I just need the supplemental arrest report on Charles Pike,” Monty explained, and she let out a groan.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. God,” she groaned, before moving back toward the file cabinet.

“Excuse me?” Monty asked, confused as to why this woman was so pissed off.

“I get it. We all just exist to serve the DA’s office. You tell Wallace that this is the last time I help him out at this fucking hour, got it?” she growled, before dropping a folder in Monty’s hands. He cocked his head in confusion, wondering why the hell she thought he worked for the DA’s office…

 

_Roan_

 

He flipped through the questions that Clarke had typed out, and he was impressed. They were good enough to go ahead and be used without him having to edit them. They were better than the ones he had come up with, at least.

He ignored the snide remarks from Echo as best as he could, but he knew he was getting distracted by Clarke. And it was like she wasn’t even aware of that fact, which Roan couldn’t understand. It wasn’t like he was being subtle about his interest in her.

He got up to take the prep questions to Kane, when the front door of the house opened.

“Roan, how are you?” Thelonious Jaha asked as he stepped into the foyer, closing the door behind him.

“Overworked and underpaid,” he joked, and Jaha burst into laughter, walking up to him and patting him on the shoulder.

“When aren’t you?” he teased, before looking into the living room. “Clarke Griffin, what on earth are you doing here?”

Roan whipped his head around to look at Clarke, wondering how the hell the two of them knew each other.

“I work for Professor Kane now. You knew I was in law school,” Clarke said, getting up off the couch to hug him. Marcus stepped out of his office, probably hearing Thelonious even with his door shut.

“How do they know each other?” Roan whispered, and Kane rolled his eyes at him.

“How do you think?” he muttered, brushing past him to greet Jaha. And given what all Kane had told me about her mother… Roan had a very clear picture of Clarke’s relationship to the Jaha’s. Not a relationship much different than the one Roan’s mother forced him into.

“Marcus, keep a close eye on this one. She’s nothing but trouble,” Jaha teased, patting Clarke on the back with a huge grin on his face. Roan’s eyes flickered over to Clarke’s, seeing that she looked less at ease with Jaha than Jaha was with her.

“Oh, I would expect nothing less from Jake’s daughter,” Marcus replied, keeping his hands in his pockets. “She’s been quite the asset so far.”

“Not surprised. Always was a smart one. She certainly gave Wells a run for his money,” Thelonious explained, and Roan noticed how Clarke’s lips twitched slightly at those words. He cocked his head slightly, wondering why exactly Marcus never once mentioned that Clarke Griffin knew Wells Jaha.

“I didn’t know that you knew Wells Jaha,” Roan said, almost accusatorily, which earned a glare from Marcus. That’s right… neither Thelonious nor Clarke should know that Wells was dead yet.

“Oh, a long time ago, they were best friends. Hell, I expected to be welcoming Clarke into the family,” Jaha remarked, and Clarke swallowed nervously. Clarke had never once mentioned Wells, which she should have if they were actually close. The guy was missing, after all. His best friend would probably be more concerned. But that statement from Jaha confirmed all his suspicions.

“I should get back to work,” Clarke said, flustered, before turning around to grab her stuff.

“Oh, I don’t mean to distract you guys from your work. Just stopped by to let Marcus know that I was heading out of town for a few days,” Jaha replied, with a nod. Marcus cocked his head to the side, watching Jaha closely as he made his way toward the door. “Call me if you get any more information.”

“Should he be leaving?” Roan whispered, and Marcus shook his head. But, he also didn’t do anything to stop Jaha. He probably knew better by now.

Monty passed Jaha on his way back into the house, looking excited as he nearly skipped up to Marcus.

“I found a discrepancy between what the prosecution gave us and the arrest report,” Monty said victoriously, and Marcus smirked at Roan.

“Looks like I just found a way to get the murder weapon thrown out,” Kane smirked, before gesturing for Monty to follow him back into his office.

As soon as the door shut, Roan crossed back into the living room, leaning against the doorframe.

“What is the exact nature of your relationship to Wells Jaha?” he asked, and Clarke’s head popped up to look at him.

“Excuse me?”

“He’s a missing person, and allegedly, one of your closest friends. Yet, you seem completely unconcerned. So, what’s the nature of your relationship with him?”

“We used to be close. After my dad died, some things were said, and we haven’t really spoken since. I’m worried about him, of course. It’s just not something I’m going to talk about while I’m at work,” she growled, and Roan stepped slowly toward her. He could tell that Clarke wasn’t prepared for this interrogation… especially since she gave such a reckless response to his question.

“You seem a bit rattled and defensive,” he observed, and her eyes widened in response. “You know, my mother is Nia Kingsley. She’s done some work with your family over the years,” he elaborated, and Clarke’s jaw clenched. Her facial reactions were making this too easy. “I’m very familiar with how your family operates. I could speculate on the real nature of you and Wells’ relationship, especially given what I know about his father.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said calmly, and he knew he just needed to push her a bit more to get her to snap again.

“You’re probably happy he’s gone missing, and likely dead. This way, you don’t have to worry about being coerced into a politically advantageous marriage like your mother was,” he remarked.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Clarke growled. “I have no relationship with those people anymore, and I would never wish something like that on Wells.” She was wagging her finger at him, and her eyes were lit with fury.

Roan grabbed her wrist warningly, raising an eyebrow at her. “You need interrogation practice. If it turns out he’s dead, you’ll be one of the top suspects. I wasn’t even trying that hard to get you to snap. A prosecutor would have no problem tricking you into admitting the wrong thing, and next thing you know, you’ll be the client that the others all assume is guilty,” he whispered, and her eyes softened as she thought this over. He let go of her wrist, and she stepped away, her eyes fluttering to the ground.

“He could still be alive,” Clarke whispered, and Roan clenched his eyes shut, knowing all too well that he was dead.

“Sure, but if he’s not, you need to be careful,” he warned, and Clarke opened her mouth to say something. “I’m not accusing you of anything. I don’t think you’re capable of murder. But, if I was defending someone who was accused of the murder, you would be the first person I’d pin it on. So, be careful and keep calm.”

She closed her mouth, nodding slightly.

“Good job on the prep questions,” he remembered to say, before picking the stack back up and heading back to Kane’s office.

 

_Marcus_

His eyes flickered around the bedroom, looking for anything he missed the first time around. He got the murder weapon thrown out, thanks to Monty’s oblivious help. The jury was now skeptical of Mrs. Pike’s best friend’s testimony about the horrible relationship between Charles and his wife, thanks to Raven’s mysterious hacker friend, who Echo informed him she was sleeping with. Bellamy found a witness to actually substantiate Pike’s alibi… not that the jury seemed to care about that one. Not after the prosecution brought up the mysterious way his first wife died.

God, Kane hated when his clients lied to him.

He heard footsteps behind him, probably from the children.

“You’re all late,” he growled, which caused the footsteps to sprint faster into the room. “You’re here to prove that I wasn’t wrong to hire you all. Find something,” he snapped. Raven looked a bit disheveled, and so did Clarke. He almost felt bad for dragging them all here in the middle of the night… but, if they wanted to get a full night of sleep, they should have gotten him the information he needed during the damn day.

“Maybe swipe the room for DNA again,” Clarke suggested.

“Already did that,” Marcus muttered. He glanced over, to see Raven and Murphy talking amongst themselves. He paced over toward them.

“Does Luna know how to unlock phones? A friend of mine forgot his password,” Murphy mumbled, and Raven eyed him skeptically, before glancing over at Marcus.

“Maybe we should put Pike on the stand,” Raven deflected, clearly nervous that Marcus had just caught them not staying focused.

“And then what?” he growled.

“Uh, we could argue that he’s suffering from Battered Husband Syndrome,” she spat out, and he immediately turned around.

“Just for that, I expect your trophy returned to me,” he muttered, shaking his head at her stupid suggestion.

“Maybe a sleepwalking defense,” Monty muttered, but Marcus’ eyes flickered to Bellamy who was looking at one of the mounted deer heads on the wall.

“Let’s take another look at the medications he’s taking. There might be side effects that we missed the first time,” Raven said, but Marcus could see that Bellamy was figuring something out. He was now narrowing his eyes at the blood.

“He’s a hunter,” Bellamy said so quietly that none of the others even heard him. But, Marcus did, and he couldn’t help but smile. Turns out the Blake kid wasn’t a total waste.

“Matrix defense,” Murphy mumbled.

“Guys, he’s a hunter,” Bellamy said more loudly, and Clarke’s eyes widened. She figured it out too. “He’s a professional hunter. He has an in-depth knowledge of anatomy. He would have known how to kill her cleanly.”

“Reyes, bring your trophy tomorrow and hand it over to Bellamy,” Marcus said as he pulled his phone out and started dialing Roan.

“What?” Raven snapped, and Marcus turned to raise an eyebrow at her.

 

_Clarke_

Monty had buried his face in his hands during the entire “demonstration” of how Pike would kill a person. Raven had spent the whole morning pouting, while Bellamy spent it rubbing it all in. Murphy seemed a bit distracted.

And Clarke… well, she was a bit distracted too. Her talk with Roan two nights ago had caught her off guard. She had never once considered that Wells could be dead. In Clarke’s experience, people like her and Wells went missing for a while, at least until the ransom was paid. But, Roan and Kane knew the Jaha’s well… and were probably right to assume he was dead.

“It was something I learned years ago. You have to be humane, to minimize suffering,” Pike explained, as Kane leaned against the rail beside the jury.

“And, the technique you demonstrated for us… how do you know that it would be quick and clean?” Professor Kane asked, tilting his head slightly.

“Because that’s how I murdered my first wife,” Pike replied casually, before the prosecution started objecting furiously.

“What is he doing?” Bellamy whispered.

“Double jeopardy applies. He can’t be tried for that murder again,” Clarke explained, leaning back to look at him.

Kane and the prosecutor were up arguing with the judge, and Kane was probably reminding them all about double jeopardy in the condescending way he tended to talk in. It was kind of brilliant. All he had to do was bring in the medical expert to testify that the two women could not have been killed by the same person, and the case was won.

And, that was exactly what Kane did.

“You literally just pointed out that he hunts. It’s not like what you did was even that smart,” Raven whispered, and Bellamy started groaning again.

“If I slept my way to the answer, would you be impressed with me?” Bellamy snapped, and now, Clarke needed to intervene.

“Raven, it was an observation that all of us seemed to miss. And, it wasn’t just that he hunts. Bellamy figured out that because he hunts, he would have killed her in the first strike. That was what the trophy was for,” Clarke whispered, and Raven furrowed her brows at her. “Bellamy, stop being a sore winner. It’s bad enough you’re a sore loser. What Raven does is her own damn business. Now, both of you shut the fuck up,” she snapped, before turning around. Luckily, they were both silent after that.

After the innocent verdict came in, Clarke sat on the courthouse steps, waiting for Kane to be done talking to the media.

“You came dangerously close to complimenting me today,” Bellamy teased as he sat down next to Clarke.

“I see you already have a big head about it,” Clarke replied, putting her phone down. There were no more updates on Wells.

“No, I just have the trophy,” he replied with a smug grin.

“I’ve seen your notes. You’ll need that trophy,” she said, and he narrowed his eyes at her.

“I’d be better off if you guys would let me into your study group,” he snapped, and Clarke raised an eyebrow.

“Say one nice thing about me and I’ll consider it,” she retorted, cocking her head to the side. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. “No witty comeback? No remarks about my family or my entitled princess ass?”

“You take good notes,” he finally said, and Clarke smacked him in the chest.

“Nope. That doesn’t count.”

“You have good handwriting.”

“No.”

“Your heels make you look taller.”

“Not even a compliment, just an observation,” Clarke muttered, shaking her head.

He clenched his jaw, turning his head to actually look at her. She couldn’t help but smirk. He hated this. This might be actual torture for the poor boy. “You’re clever. You figured out how to use another person’s argument to make yours sound better while still following the rules. You knew how to sneak around the rules to find out that witness was colorblind… you are a clever, smart person.”

“Okay, it must have killed you to say that, so I will negotiate with Raven and Monty about getting you into the study group,” Clarke said with a huge grin, poking his shoulder as she giggled at him. He bit his lip, looking down at his hands.

“Thank you, princess,” he said with a small smile, and Clarke couldn’t help but chuckle at him more.  

“Hey, Clarke, can I talk to you for a second?” Roan asked, and she turned around to see him standing a few steps behind them.

“Oh, I’ll just go,” Bellamy muttered, standing up. He crossed over to where Murphy was typing furiously on his phone.

“What?” Clarke snapped, and Roan sat down beside her.

“I wanted to apologize,” he said, and she raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m sorry for interrogating you like that.”

“Wells is my friend. I don’t need you insinuating that I would ever do anything to hurt him. And I really don’t need you rubbing my family history in my face,” she growled, and Roan let out a sigh.

“I know,” he conceded, and Clarke knew that if anyone would know what she meant, it would be him. The Kingsley’s were not nearly as bad as her mother’s family… but, they were pretty close. She vaguely remembered his mother from years ago… that woman was terrifying. Almost as terrifying as some of Clarke’s cousins. “Thelonious Jaha keeps me and Kane on retainer. With his son missing, we’ve had to stay prepared for the worst. He’d likely be a suspect, and now, so would you.”

“Okay,” Clarke sighed, leaning back on the step.

“If the worst happens, Jaha will be well protected. I need to make sure you are too,” he explained, and Clarke turned her head to look at him, eyes wide.

“You’re getting dangerously close to sounding like you care,” Clarke accused, and Roan started chuckling.

“Wouldn’t want to lose our smartest intern just because she said something stupid and made herself into the prime suspect,” he joked, and she rolled her eyes.

Clarke wasn’t worried she would be the prime suspect. She knew enough other people with more motive than she had. After all, she wasn’t financially tied to her family anymore. They couldn’t force her into anything with Wells just so they could buy some favors from the Jaha’s. Plus, there was that shady Emori girl that Wells had started spending time with in the last year. That girl would be a much better suspect than Clarke, who hadn’t seen him in months.

“Thanks for the life chat,” Clarke murmured as she pushed herself up. She crossed over to Monty, who was nervously checking his phone. “Fiancée troubles?” she teased, and he rolled his eyes.

“No. She had an interview today and I’m just waiting to see how it went,” he smiled cutely, and Clarke thought she could melt. It was so sweet listening to him talk about Harper. It almost made her forget that she spent the last week helping a man get away with murdering his wife.

“You two are so cute,” she teased, poking him playfully.

“Almost as cute as you and Roan,” Monty replied, and Clarke’s jaw dropped slightly.

“What?” she asked, chuckling slightly at the accusation.

“Oh, come on,” he groaned, widening his eyes at Clarke. “I see how he keeps looking at you, or how he picked you to stay at the house and work on prep questions with him. And then, he keeps pulling you aside to talk to you.”

“You’re reading into things,” Clarke said, shaking her head slightly.

“Would you still say that if I told you he was staring at you right now?” he asked, and Clarke turned to look for him, before Monty grabbed onto her arm quickly. “Oh, my God. Don’t be so obvious.”

“Sorry,” Clarke whispered, flustered. She wasn’t sure how she had missed this. Then, her phone started ringing. She could see Marcus break away from the press and signal for them all to circle up. She gestured that she would be right there, before stepping around the corner to take the call.

“Hello?”

“Yes, is this Clarke Griffin?” the woman asked.

“Yes, it is.”

“You are listed as an emergency contact for a Mr. Wells Jaha,” she said, and Clarke braced her hand on the wall to keep from falling over at those words. She could hear someone coming up to her, but she waved them off. “We need you to come down to identify the body.” And that’s when Clarke dropped her phone.

 

_Raven_

 

“No,” Luna snapped, before closing the door in Raven’s face. Raven let out a sigh before knocking again. “Raven, I don’t care what your boss needs!”

“I’m not here for that!” Raven shouted through the door. She knew Luna was pissed at her. She kept coming over asking her to hack into people’s emails and Raven hardly ever did anything in return that wasn’t sex.

Luna hesitantly opened up the door, just enough to poke her head out. “What is it you want this time?”

“You weren’t answering your phone. I wanted to ask if you wanted to go out tonight. We could see a movie, or I could go get takeout and we could stay in,” Raven offered, and Luna opened the door the rest of the way.

“You’re not using me tonight?” she snapped, raising an eyebrow at her.

“All I want is you. I’m sorry I made you think otherwise,” Raven sighed, leaning on the wall by her door.

They ended up going to a movie. Everything good was sold out, so they ended up at one of those awkward comedies that had an empty theater.

“Then what happened?” Luna asked, stuffing more popcorn into her mouth.

“Okay, so even though I found the actual helpful stuff and Monty got the knife thrown out, Bellamy got the damn trophy just because he figured out this guy was a hunter,” Raven groaned, throwing her head back. They had hardly paid attention to the movie. But, they were the only ones in there… so it didn’t matter if they just sat and talked the whole time.

“Aren’t you friends with Bellamy?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

“I’m not really friends with any of them. We work together. Plus, the whole trophy system constantly has us working against each other. So, even though there are times that I’m almost friends with some of them, that gets thrown out the window as soon as the next case starts,” she sighed, resting her head on her hand. “And Bellamy has had the worst attitude this whole fucking time. He’s always gunning for Clarke for no reason.”

“Is there a reason to dislike Clarke?”

“Okay, her dad was some big shot lawyer. She’s a legacy student. But, that doesn’t mean shit to Kane, so it doesn’t matter. Honestly, I just think he wants to fuck her.”

“I need to see pictures of these people,” Luna said, chuckling, and Raven pulled up their Facebook pages.

“That’s Clarke,” Raven pointed out.

“Yeah, he probably wants to fuck her. She has a nice ass,” Luna said, flipping through her profile pictures.

“Want me to set you up?” Raven joked, and Luna rolled her eyes.

“Nah,” she replied, before her eyes dropped down to Raven’s chest. “I think I’m good.”

“So, I finally take you out on a date, and all you’re thinking about is sex?” Raven teased, and she let out a mock-offended scoff.

“Do you blame me?”

They picked up Chinese takeout on the way home, and settled down on the couch.

“Well, they finally found that missing kid,” Luna muttered, and Raven glanced up at the screen to see what she was talking about. Wells Jaha was found dead, apparently, and Raven just shook her head. She had seen so many fliers, asking for any information that would find him. Poor guy.

“Any info about what happened to him?” she asked, before opening her box of fried rice.

“Not yet. But he’s probably been dead this whole time.”

Raven sighed, remembering that his father was one of Kane’s more famous clients. She wondered if he knew Wells.

“His dad is one of our clients,” Raven finally admitted, and Luna shot her a concerned look. “I don’t know him or anything, but I feel bad for his dad.”

“Maybe you could reach out to him,” she suggested, but Raven shrugged. There was nothing she could do to make it better.

 

**Four Months Later**

_Bellamy_

 

“Clarke, they don’t mean that,” he whispered, following her into the kitchen. She turned around to look at him, her teary eyes disguised under the blood splattered across her face and hair. “Here, let’s get you cleaned up,” he said shakily as he brushed past her to turn on the sink.

“They meant it,” she murmured, and Bellamy took a paper towel and started wiping the blood off her face.

“No, they’re just scared,” he whispered, shaking his head at her. Even in the dark, her blue eyes were bright as she looked back at him.

“I can say it was self-defense,” she said, and it took a moment for Bellamy to realize what she meant.

“No,” he snapped, gripping her face between his two hands. “You’re not going to the police.”

Then, her soft hands covered his blood-spattered ones shakily. “I can tell them he attacked me. You guys just leave the house and no one has to know any of you were here.”

“That’s a lie, and it’s a lie that would land you in prison for a long time,” Bellamy growled, but Clarke kept shaking her head frantically in between his hands.

“One look at my neck and the police would believe me,” she insisted, the tears streaming down her face. Bellamy could hear the faint sound of the others arguing in the foyer, but he couldn’t think about them now. Murphy would make sure that none of them ran to the police while he took care of Clarke.

Bellamy moved one hand from her face to wet a paper towel. Then, he started trying to get the blood out of her strands of hair. “If you were a lawyer, is that what you would advise your client to do?” he asked, tilting his head as his cleaning moved toward her forehead.

“My DNA is under his fingernails, Bellamy,” she whispered shakily, and he swallowed. He hadn’t thought about that.

“Then, we get rid of the body. We could burn it,” he suggested, and her eyes widened.

“No, there is no ‘we’ here. No one else’s DNA is on the body—”

Bellamy cut her off by crashing his lips into hers. He could feel her tears on his cheeks. It wasn’t the cleanest kiss he had ever had with Clarke. She was sobbing too hard, and he was too shaky. He could hear Raven shouting for him in the other room.

“If they won’t help, that’s one thing. But, I’m taking care of you, got it?” he growled, before leaning up to kiss her forehead.

“Bellamy…”

“Stop,” he snapped, before he resumed cleaning off her face. His eyes caught glimpse of her throat for a brief moment, and Bellamy realized that he was glad Jaha was dead. “We will take care of the body. The others will help.”

“They’ll turn on us,” Clarke protested.

“Then, you and I back each other up, got it? I am your alibi tonight and you are mine,” he reassured, now resting his hand on her cheek just to comfort her. Although, he had doubts they would be a believable alibi for each other. They’d have to work on a convincing story, something about how they had a secret relationship or something. Something that would make it sound less like a convenient lie.

She finally gave in and nodded, and Bellamy snaked an arm around her waist. He started nudging her toward the foyer.

“What the fuck have you two been doing?” Raven yelled, and Bellamy immediately hushed her.

“He was helping me get the blood off,” Clarke whispered, and Bellamy swallowed. He looked around the room, noticing two people absent from this scene.

“Where are Murphy and Emori?” Bellamy growled.


	3. Princess Thanks You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is another long update. Took me a little longer than expected, but I should have known better since there's a good chunk of smut in this one. 
> 
> I'm gonna try to get the next one done by Sunday night, but we'll see. Things are still kind of a mess for me. But, I'm really excited to write the next update, since a lot of my favorite events in this fic happen in it. 
> 
> Thanks for all the feedback! Your comments give me life! Love you guys!

_Murphy_

 

“You have to go back to them,” Emori whispered, before Murphy covered her mouth with his hand.

“I will. But, we needed to get you out of there first,” he murmured, studying her eyes closely. She was panicked, of course. They all were. But she didn’t look like she was about to go running, so he let go. He pulled the motel key out of his pocket before opening the door. He glanced over his shoulder, counting the exact number of cars that were there when they arrived. Good. No one was following them.

“Am I just supposed to wait in here?” she asked, plopping herself down on the bed.

“Well, you’ll shower. So that will buy you some time,” he muttered, wincing slightly at the sight of blood in her hair. Emori let out a huff, lying back onto the bed.

“They’re gonna turn on me,” she mumbled.

“No, they’re not,” he snapped, sitting down next to her.

“Wouldn’t you? If you got put on trial for murder, wouldn’t you pin it on the only person there with a criminal record?” she asked, eyes wide.

“You weren’t the only one in that house with a criminal record,” he growled, although it wasn’t like he could pin the whole thing on Bellamy and get away with it. He would have to work with Bellamy if he wanted him and Emori to escape this without a prison sentence. “Just stay here. I’ll be back as soon as it’s all done. If anything happens, you and I were in this room all night, got it?”

She nodded, and Murphy pushed himself up onto his feet. He forced himself to take a deep breath. He knew that Bellamy would be pissed when he figured out that Murphy ran off… he probably thought Murphy went straight to the police. But, Murphy knew how that would turn out for him.

“Aren’t you going to say it?” Emori asked, and he turned back to look at her. She looked nervous, sad… almost remorseful.

“When I get back,” he sighed.

“Come on,” Emori prodded, and Murphy bit his lip, looking down at the ground. “You get to be angry. Just get it all out.”

“What was your plan, Emori?” he shouted, his hands shaking as he pushed them through his messy hair. “What would you have done if Raven and Monty hadn’t shown up when they did? Or if I hadn’t gotten Bellamy and Clarke to drive me to the house? It could have been your body on that floor!”

Murphy had kept himself composed this whole time. He had taken deep breaths, he kept from screaming as soon as Jaha’s body hit the floor, he didn’t collapse like Monty did when Clarke and Emori were splattered with Jaha’s blood. But in this motel room, he fell apart. He fell to the ground, tears pouring down his face.

He felt her hands on his cheeks, and he just shook his head. If even one of them didn’t happen to show up at the house at the right moment, it would have been her. He would have never felt these hands on his face again.

“What was your plan?” he whispered, before Emori leaned in press a shaky kiss to his lips.

“I was just trying to get the phone back,” she replied, shaking her head. “It was stupid. I was stupid.”

“You’re gonna stay here all night. You’re gonna wait for me. Okay?”

“But you saw Raven. She’ll turn us in, or Monty will,” she whispered, and Murphy swallowed.

“Luckily, I’m better at plans than you are,” he joked, but Emori wasn’t laughing. “Look, if this all goes down, then we’re looking at you, me, Bellamy, and Clarke all going to prison. I know you don’t trust them—”

“I trust Clarke,” Emori interrupted, and Murphy swallowed, having a horrific flashback to Clarke pushing Emori out of the way. Of course, she trusted Clarke.

“Okay, but I know Clarke and Bellamy better than you do. They’re both clever and conniving. They know they won’t go free unless they find a way to get Raven and Monty to keep their mouths shut. They’ll take care of them. They’ll take care of us, okay?”

“And if they don’t?” she asked, as Murphy wiped what remained of his tears from his cheeks.

“Then, you and I turn on them. Lie to the police and say that Clarke knew about what was on the phone. That gives her motive for premeditated murder,” he said, feeling his stomach churn at the thought. But, if someone had to go down for this, he’d rather it be Clarke than Emori.

“Bellamy will turn on you if you do that,” Emori argued, and Murphy rolled his eyes.

“He’s smart. If he has a chance to bury someone else for this, he’d take it.”

“Not if it’s Clarke,” she snapped, and Murphy cocked his head in confusion. Emori knew something he didn’t.

“They hate each other.”

“No, I’ve seen them together. I don’t know about her, but he’s in pretty deep. He’d come after you if you came after her. You need a better back up plan,” she explained, and Murphy clenched his jaw. That complicates his plan, of course. But, he could use this. He could make Bellamy get the others in line.

 

**Three Months Earlier**

_Bellamy_

 

Clarke was late to class. She was never late. Always bright and early… annoyingly so.

“Dude, you mind?” Miller muttered, gesturing to Bellamy’s pen that he had been tapping on his notebook.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, forcing himself to put the pen down. Professor Kane was passing out outlines for the class. Clarke probably just decided to skip class today. Hell, Kane probably gave her a pass for the day, since her friend died.

“One of my favorite parts of the job is getting a confession out of a witness,” Kane announced with a smug grin. “It’s challenging, sure. But any good game is a bit challenging.”

Then, Bellamy heard the back door in the classroom open with a squeak, and turned in his seat to see Clarke powerwalking in, looking more rattled than he had ever seen her. More rattled than she was when she dropped that phone and started hyperventilating.

Kane paused for a moment, looking like he was about to chastise her, but apparently thought better of it. Clarke settled down in the seat right behind Bellamy, pulling out her notebook and pens frantically.

“You start off easy. Ask about their friends and family, where they went to school… any generic question you’d be asked by a stranger who was making small talk. This is just a warm up,” Kane continued, and Bellamy started jotting this down.

“You become a detective in an interrogation, searching for any misstep in the witness’ statement that can help you tear their story apart,” he explained. “You don’t ask them for the truth. No, you trick them into giving you the answer you want. You lie to them, convince them that someone else was telling a different story… anything that will get them nervous enough to slip.”

One of the students in the front quietly asked Kane a question, and Bellamy relaxed in his chair. He glanced back at Clarke, who was writing furiously in her notebook.

“What happened?” Bellamy whispered, and her lips twitched slightly.

“You saw the news. You know what happened,” she muttered, not even glancing up at him. He swallowed, remembering the news coverage from before. Wells Jaha was found in a freezer… had likely been dead for weeks, which is why no one had heard from him.

“Was he an old boyfriend of yours or something?” he asked, and Clarke’s eyes fluttered up to glare at him.

“Alright, your quizzes are ready to be picked up on the table. See you all tomorrow. My interns, stay behind,” Kane announced, and Bellamy let out a groan. The rest of the class rushed out of their seats, practically sprinting down to see how they did.

“Clarke,” he said, as Clarke put her stuff back into her bag.

“What?” she snapped, before biting her lip.

“Are you okay?”

Her head snapped up to look at him, her blue eyes narrowing in his direction. “Do you care?” Bellamy opened his mouth to argue, but she interrupted him before he could say anything. “No, we’ve been working together for weeks. In that time, you have called me an entitled princess on numerous occasions, belittled the work that I do, and constantly implied that any successes I have are because of my family. You and I are not friends. You hate me. Why are you checking up on me?” she growled, and Bellamy practically jumped in response.

“So, I take it you’re not okay,” he murmured as Clarke made her way down the steps. He let out a sigh, before following after her.

Kane was whispering with Roan and Echo, while the others were talking about the upcoming exam. Bellamy noticed that Kane pulled Clarke aside, and she looked like she wanted to rip his head off.

“Guess you don’t have to worry about the princess taking your trophy before the exam,” Murphy teased, and Bellamy rolled his eyes.

“Like she could,” he snapped, and Raven scoffed.

“Wait, what’s going on with Clarke?” Monty asked, furrowing his brows.

“She had to identify the dead body of her best friend. Now, all of you shut up and mind your damn business,” Echo muttered as she broke into their huddle, passing them information packets.

“Alright, we have a new client,” Kane announced, and Clarke slouched down into the seat next to Raven. “She’s one of my oldest friends, and I expect you all to take her seriously.”

Bellamy flipped through the packet, recognizing the firm this Indra person owned. She basically came from nothing, and became one of the most powerful CEO’s in the country.

“What’s the charge?” Raven asked.

“Insider trading,” Kane muttered, shaking his head slightly. Bellamy furrowed his brows, wondering how someone so powerful and smart got caught for something stupid like that.

 

_Monty_

 

He recognized Indra immediately. Her photos had been all over the packet that Echo had given him.

“Get your little henchmen off my damn property,” Indra snapped at one of the many agents who were storming the building. Monty swallowed, looking around at the others who looked just as mystified at the chaotic room. There were employees shredding documents, screaming into the phone. It looked like something straight out of Wolf of Wall Street.

“Indra,” Kane warned, stepping in between her and the agent.

“We have a warrant,” the agent growled.

“She had to know that she’d get caught for doing something like insider trading,” Monty muttered, shaking his head at the scene.

“Oh, it’s actually really easy to get away with insider trading,” Clarke replied, and Monty whipped his head around at her with wide eyes.

“Have you done it?” Raven joked, and Clarke rolled her eyes.

“Look, say for example that my cousin let me know that his tech company was about to be bought out by Apple. I personally would have to sit on my hands since I’m too easily tied to that knowledge. But, I could let it slip to a friend and agree to share the profits if they acted on it for me,” she explained, and Monty furrowed his brows. If it were that easy, there’s no way that Indra would have gotten caught for this. Maybe she actually was being set up.

“That how your family paid for your million-dollar education, princess?” Murphy teased, and Clarke raised an eyebrow at him.

Raven and Monty exchanged a nervous look, knowing all too well that today was not the day to poke fun at Clarke. She might be off her game for personal reasons, but she wouldn’t hesitate to go off on someone.

“You really don’t want to bother the princess today,” Bellamy muttered, and Clarke whipped her head around to glare at him.

“What did I say about that nickname?” she growled, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at him.

“Look who is actually talking to me now,” Bellamy teased.

Clarke opened her mouth to speak, before Roan stepped into their little huddle, standing right in between Clarke and Bellamy. He gave Clarke a warning look, and Monty swears Clarke was about to punch him.

“You know what I think of your warrant?” Indra shouted, and Monty turned back around to see Indra lighting the papers with her cigarette lighter, before throwing them into a trashcan. Her employees’ cheers echoed throughout the building.

“Indra, stop,” Kane warned, looking more like an overworked dad than her lawyer. “Is there anything that actually ties her to the Eligius Corporation?” he asked the agent, who let out a sigh, before pulling out a tablet.

“The man in this video is its CEO,” the agent explained, and Kane waved for the rest of them to gather around. Monty flinched when he realized what this video was.

“Everyone makes sex tapes these days,” Indra groaned, sitting up on the desk next to the tablet. Sure enough, there was the CEO of Eligius in the video with her.

“Indra, how could you be so reckless?” Kane snapped, and she let out a huff.

“I didn’t do it. I’m being set up,” she muttered, raising an eyebrow at the screen. “And, tell your kids to take notes. Not many get the privilege of watching me in my element,” she said with a grin, winking at Monty, whose face went flush.

It took a little too long for them to get out of that building and back to Kane’s house.

“So, the stock purchases were made under Indra’s log in,” Kane explained as they followed him into the living room. “She claims she was hacked, but there’s no proof of that. Which means that someone inside the firm set her up.”

“Or she actually did it,” Bellamy muttered, and Kane narrowed his eyes back at him.

“She wants it thrown out before the preliminary hearing,” Kane continued, ignoring Bellamy’s doubtful commentary. “Which one of you can tell me who usually wins those?”

“The prosecution, about 99% of the time,” Raven jumped in, even though Monty had raised his damn hand.

“And the only way to keep it from going to trial would be to find the real culprit,” Monty interjected, savoring how annoyed Raven looked that he came up with what Professor Kane was actually getting to.

“Good, Mr. Green,” Kane replied, and Monty couldn’t help but smirk. Sure, Bellamy had the trophy for now. But Monty could get it as soon as he turned it in to get a passing grade on his exam.

“You’re all going to interview all of the employees. Look for the Benedict Arnold,” Roan explained, passing out large folders to each of them. But when he got to Clarke, he was out of folders, and she furrowed her brows in confusion. “You’ll be helping me in case the others screw up and this does go to trial.”

Monty exchanged a look with Murphy, who also looked skeptical about this.

“Get to work. Griffin, I need you for a moment,” Kane said, marching back toward his office. Roan and Echo stepped into the kitchen, looking like they needed to whisper something to each other.

“They’re sidelining her, aren’t they?” Murphy whispered, and Monty nodded.

“The girl is a mess. Probably don’t want her to fuck up the case,” Raven mused as she flipped through the papers in her folder.

“She’s gone off on me repeatedly today. Don’t blame them,” Bellamy whispered.

“That has more to do with you being an asshole, but yeah. She’s not as collected as she normally is,” Raven sighed, and Roan marched back into the room.

“Why are you all still here?” he snapped, and Monty grabbed his bag and started jogging toward the door, hearing the others follow quickly behind him.

 

_Raven_

 

Indra must have trained them on how to evade questions, because not one of the employees let anything interesting slip.

She let out a huff, looking around at the cubicles. She could see Bellamy getting flustered as he talked to one of the brokers, and Monty looked more nervous than usual. Of all the days for Clarke to be sidelined…

She sat down, resigning to taking a little break, as she looked over the list of employees.

“The delivery was supposed to be there an hour ago,” a woman snapped, and Raven glanced up, seeing Indra’s assistant practically seething on the phone. Raven glanced back down at the list, realizing that Indra didn’t include secretaries and personal assistants… just people who had the ability to buy stock.

She watched as Bellamy made his way down to the next person on his list. Murphy was on the phone in the corner of the room, and Monty was frantically scribbling something down. Good, they were all distracted.

“Your name is Anya, right?” Raven asked as she made her way over to the assistant’s desk.

“If you have more questions for Indra, it’ll have to wait. She’s on a conference call,” Anya muttered, as she crossed something out on the paper in front of her.

“No, I was just wondering if there was somewhere in here that was a bit quieter for me to go to. Sorry, I’m just not used to all this noise. I’m a bit overwhelmed,” Raven sighed, and Anya glanced up at her with a soft smile.

“Yeah, hold on. I’ll show you,” she replied, pulling on her jacket. Raven fished the flash drive that Luna had given her out of her pocket, as Anya walked around the desk. Raven stuck it in the side of her computer monitor, before following after her. “Sorry, sometimes I forget how loud they can all be.”

“How long have you been working for Indra?” Raven asked casually, now walking in step with Anya.

“Oh, for years. Since before she moved the company into this building,” Anya replied, before pulling out a key and moving toward one of the door in the hallway.

“How is Indra handling all of this? I mean, it’s got to be stressful for her,” Raven asked as softly as she could, and Anya pressed her lips together.

“She’s already lost a lot of clients,” she replied, opening the door to reveal an empty office. Raven snuck a glance down at her watch. She needed to keep Anya distracted for a few more minutes so the program could run its course. Then, Anya shut the door behind her and locked the door. Raven raised an eyebrow at her, before realizing what Anya probably thought this was about. “Still feeling overwhelmed?” she asked with a smirk.

And before Raven knew what was happening, Anya’s lips were travelling down her throat as she tugged off Raven’s jacket.

Hours later, Luna was passing the laptop over to Raven.

“I feel like I should be the one working for Kane,” she joked, and Raven rolled her eyes. “Seriously, how did you even get this Anya girl away from her computer for that long?”

Raven swallowed as she scrolled through Anya’s emails. “Just asked for a tour of the office,” Raven lied, and Luna let out a huff.

“Gotta love it when my girlfriend is being all vague,” she muttered as she stood up.

“What?” Raven snapped, widening her eyes up at Luna, who looked confused.

“What?” she echoed, tilting her head slightly.

“You just called me your girlfriend,” Raven replied, raising her eyebrows.

“Well, what else would you call this? You spend every night here, we go on dates, I illegally hack people for you…” Luna muttered, sounding frustrated.

“We never had that conversation. We never talked about if this was serious or exclusive or—”

“You’ve been under the assumption we weren’t exclusive?” Luna snapped, and Raven leaned back into the couch, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Luna, can we not do this right now? Can this argument wait until after the preliminary hearing?” Raven groaned, sitting up to refocus her attention on the laptop.

“Sure, whatever,” Luna muttered, stepping over Raven’s legs as she made her way to the kitchen.

Raven finally just searched all Anya’s emails for anything referencing the Eligius Corporation. Finally, she found exactly what she was looking for.

She shot Kane a quick text, explaining that Anya set Indra up with the CEO, meaning she likely helped whoever bought the stock frame her for insider trading.

“Why are you smiling like that?” Luna asked, and Raven hadn’t even realized she had been smiling.

“Oh, I just figured out how to get my trophy back from Bellamy,” she said, as she put her shoes back on.

“You sure it’s going to be you that gets it this time? Aren’t there three other people who are competing for it?” Luna asked, and Raven let out a groan.

“Please, Monty definitely did not find something today. Murphy was straight off the waitlist. And Bellamy is too cocky right now to work hard enough to keep it.”

“And Clarke?”

“Forgot about Clarke. But she’s too much of a mess right now to be a threat,” Raven explained, as she tugged her jacket on. “I’ll be back later,” she said quickly, kissing Luna on the cheek. “Gotta go get my trophy.”

 

_Clarke_

 

“And here are all the notes I took today, princess,” Bellamy announced, dropping the notebook loudly onto the coffee table in front of her.

“I’ll get right on it,” Clarke replied with gritted teeth, as she pulled her laptop back into her lap. She could feel Roan’s apologetic gaze on her, but she didn’t deign to give him a response. Nothing about this was okay. All she wanted was to forget about Wells by burying herself in real work, and Kane has given her nothing but busy work.

About half an hour into typing up Bellamy’s notes, Raven ran into the house and started pounding on Kane’s office door.

“God, remember when we thought Griffin was going to be the obnoxious one?” Echo murmured, but Clarke kept her head down.

“Who would have thought it would be a competition between Blake and Reyes for the worst…” Roan teased, earning a scoff from Bellamy across the room.

Clarke moved on to the last of the people Bellamy interviewed, which would mark the end of yet another pointless assignment.

“I got your text. Calm down,” Professor Kane groaned as he descended the staircase. Clarke stifled her chuckle as best she could, even though it was hilarious how much Raven jumped when she realized he wasn’t actually in his office.

“Wait, did Reyes actually find something?” Echo muttered, and Clarke’s eyes fluttered up to look at Raven.

“The assistant, Anya, went out of her way to set Indra up with the CEO,” Raven explained, and Clarke cocked her head to the side. An assistant wouldn’t have been able to make those purchases… which meant there were others working with her and Raven really didn’t have anything that damning.

Then, Professor Kane went on to explain just that, and Bellamy immediately started teasing Raven for acting a little too proud of herself.

“Well, Anya would have been working with someone else, which means that one of the people you all interviewed is the culprit,” Roan sighed, as he walked over to the other side of the room where Kane was gathering the other interns. She had to force herself not to react when Kane gestured for Clarke to stay put.

“The purchase happened at exactly 2:25,” Echo pointed out, and Clarke flipped to a blank page on Murphy’s notebook and wrote that down.

She scrolled up to the top of her document, seeing that Indra claimed to have been on a smoke break around that time.

“There were a few brokers who logged out around that time, and they could have gotten the account information from the assistant,” Roan explained.

“Yeah, one of mine, Morrison did,” Bellamy explained, and Clarke searched the document for that name. Bellamy noted that Morrison smelled like smoke, and Clarke scribbled that down along with the time he logged out.

“Do you think Morrison had a strong enough motive for this? Bad relationship with Indra?” Kane asked, and Clarke kept reading Bellamy’s notes. From the looks of it, Morrison seemed to try a little too hard to convince Bellamy that he was loyal to Indra. But he didn’t seem like the type to mastermind a plan like this…

“No way. He loves Indra. Been loyal to her for almost a decade,” Bellamy replied, and Clarke bit her lip. She thought back to all the names she had typed up, trying to remember the last time one of them seemed to be dodging the questions about their relationship with Indra with insistences that they were completely loyal.

“Who else logged out?” Kane asked. The name Smith seemed to jump at Clarke, and she immediately searched that name in the document. On the third Smith, she found who she was thinking of. Smith was who dropped the pile of the pending litigation on Monty’s desk, directing him to look for the people who had it out for Indra, since everyone in the office was so damn loyal. Smith logged out around the same time.

Murphy jogged over to Clarke, and Clarke tore the page out of his notebook before handing it to him. “I think a few of mine did,” he murmured, flipping through his illegible notes.

“Why don’t we just interrogate Anya and get her to turn on them?” Raven asked, and Clarke had to bite her tongue not to laugh. Anya wouldn’t admit anything unless she had to.

Clarke pulled up the list of everyone’s log in times.

“Echo, do you still have the directory map?” Clarke whispered, and Echo slid it over to her, not even glancing up from her notes. Smith and Morrison were the only two of the people who logged out at that time who were close enough to physically see Indra get up for her smoke break.

“You can’t seriously think that Anya would admit to this and turn in the others. She’ll just deny and alert them that we’re onto them,” Bellamy snapped.

“Professor Kane,” Clarke said as soon as it clicked.

“Well, it’s better than anything you’ve come up with,” Raven snapped.

“Professor Kane,” Clarke said more loudly, standing up from the couch.

“I’m sorry, do you need another assignment?” Kane snapped, tilting his head in that condescending manner that pissed Clarke off to no end.

“Yeah, I do. Especially since I figured out that Morrison kept Indra distracted on her smoke break, Anya let Smith into Indra’s office, and Smith made the trade,” Clarke replied, and the rest of them all whipped their heads to stare at her, jaws dropped. “Should I do a coffee run? Anyone need a snack?”

She loved how Kane’s jaw twitched at her tone, and she knew she probably looked pretty damn smug. But she had been purposefully kept off this case because Kane thought she was too much of a mess to do her job… and she just did everyone else’s job.

“Blake, give your trophy to Griffin,” Kane said as he stormed across the room to his office.

“How the fuck did you figure that out?” Monty snapped, and Clarke raised an eyebrow at him.

“Because I’ve spent my whole day typing up all your notes,” she replied, as she started packing up her bag. Bellamy stomped over to her, holding out the trophy for her. “Princess thanks you,” she muttered, taking it from him.

Bellamy and Raven made their way into Kane’s office, looking defeated. Monty followed after them, whispering with Roan.

“Murphy, wait,” Clarke said, and Murphy looked up at her, confused. “I’ve seen how you take notes. You need this more than I do,” Clarke explained, holding out the trophy for him. “Plus, while you guys have been out wasting your day, I’ve actually gotten the time to study.”

“Thanks,” he whispered, furrowing his brows at her.

“Just remember this next time you want to call me ‘princess,’” she muttered, before brushing past him on the way into Kane’s office.

 

_Marcus_

 

“I still don’t understand why I’m coming to this instead of Echo or Roan,” Clarke whispered as they made their way upstairs.

“Well, short answer, I feel bad that I sidelined you and figured as an apology I could give you a front row seat to me ripping the confession out of Morrison,” he replied with a grin. “Besides, Echo is busy this morning and Roan is grading papers for me.”

He shook his head at his former self who thought sidelining a Griffin could ever be a good idea. Hell, out of all his interns, she scored the highest on the LSAT, and she took that test two days after her father was found dead. If anyone could deliver while in mourning, it would be her.

“I thought depositions in criminal cases weren’t really a thing,” Clarke pondered, and he nodded.

“They’re rare. But, I made the argument that since all the employees are wealthy enough to be flight risks we needed preserve all the testimonies,” he explained, and Clarke pulled out her phone to write that down.

The agent welcomed them into the room, and Clarke took a seat in the back, behind the camera.

His phone buzzed, and he read a text from Echo telling him about a recent wire transfer that Jaha made. He swallowed, before putting his phone away.

“You ready for me?” the man that Kane now recognized as Morrison asked, and Marcus gestured for him to take a seat.

Marcus opened with a few easy questions, asking him about his wife and kids.

“Did you take a smoke break with Indra around 2:25 on the day of the trade?” he asked casually, and Morrison stiffened up a bit.

“Not sure,” he replied, and Kane had to fight not to roll his eyes.

“So, you weren’t keeping Indra occupied while Norma Smith logged onto her computer and bought the stock?” Marcus asked, and Morrison’s jaw clenched slightly, enough to tell him that he asked the right question.

“Of course not. If Indra was out there that day, we just had a normal conversation and smoked together. It happens a lot. I have no knowledge of what Norma was doing,” he stuttered out, and Kane snuck a look at Clarke, who was struggling not to grin herself.

Marcus moved back to his briefcase, pulling out the stack of papers, before slamming it on the table in front of Morrison. “That’s not what she said,” Marcus deadpanned, tapping on the papers in front of him.

Morrison didn’t even look at the papers. His eyes turned wide as he glared back at Marcus.

“In fact, she said it was all your idea.”

“I think that’s all I have to say,” Morrison snapped, and Marcus turned back to look at the agent.

“It’ll be noted if you leave. You’ll get a better deal from me if you answer his questions,” the agent sighed.

“She’s lying,” Morrison said frantically, and Marcus felt his smirk tug at his lips. “It was her idea, completely. She helped Anya set her up and told me that all I had to do was keep her busy for a few minutes.”

“Mr. Morrison, you’re under arrest,” the agent announced, standing up with his handcuffs ready for Morrison.

“Next time, read what I put in front of you,” Marcus teased, picking up the old outline. He glanced back at Clarke who was cocking her head in confusion, while the agent read Morrison his rights. Marcus passed Clarke the papers. “That’s Roan’s guide to studying torts. Got him a near perfect score. Now, thanks for all your help and go make sure your GPA stays up. I’ll see you at the memorial,” he explained, before following Morrison out of the room.

Clarke shot him a grateful look before going back down the stairs, and Marcus let out a sigh before dialing Echo.

“We have a Jaha problem,” she groaned, and Marcus leaned against the wall.

“How bad is it?” he groaned.

“There were two payments. One before and one after the M.E. says Wells was killed.”

“Order a second autopsy,” Marcus muttered.

“Already on it. The bigger problem is that what Jaha says the money was for is illegal, meaning he won’t be able to clear that up in court.”

“God damnit,” Marcus snapped, hitting his head on the wall. “Why can’t he for once make our job easy for us?”

“Well, it’d be one thing if we were dodging just the trafficking laws he was breaking. Doubt he expected to add dodging accusations of hiring a hitman for his own son to the list,” Echo muttered, and Marcus let out a groan.

“Bury it,” Marcus ordered, and Echo let out a huff. “I have to start Smith on her deposition. I want this done before the police starts dragging people in to make statements about Wells, okay?”

 

_Roan_

 

He dialed again, before turning his car off. Clarke sent him straight to voicemail again. He let out a sigh, before dialing Marcus.

“Is she at her apartment?” he asked, and Roan glanced over to see her car a few spaces over.

“Her car is here. If Clarke would pick up her phone, I would know for certain if she’s here, but I think it’s a safe bet,” Roan murmured, leaning back in his seat.

“Echo found her apartment number, right?” Marcus asked, and Roan could hear the memorial going on in the background.

“Yeah, I can go check on her if you really think I should. But we might be reading into this. Maybe she isn’t there just because it’s too hard for her or she doesn’t want to see her mother. I don’t think I need to—”

“Just do it to give me peace of mind. Also, Jaha asked us to keep an eye on her. So, think of it as helping our client,” he groaned, and Roan opened his car door. “Text me as soon as you have an update on her. I’ve got to go back to hiding from Abby Griffin.”

Roan rolled his eyes as he hung up on him. He pulled up the text Echo sent with Clarke’s apartment info, before closing the car door behind him. While Roan had been relatively worried about Clarke all week, he didn’t really think it was necessary for him to track her down. Sure, she was missing her friend’s memorial service and wasn’t picking up her phone… but she was also in mourning. She probably just wanted to be left alone. And she certainly didn’t want to see Roan of all people, especially with how she went off on him for supporting Kane in the decision to keep her buried in busy work.

He dialed her again as he stepped off the elevator, but she sent him to voicemail again. When he got to her door, he pressed his ear to it, hearing the faint sound of a tv in the background. He debated whether that was enough “proof of life” for Marcus, but knew it wasn’t, so he knocked on the door.

“What do you want?” Clarke shouted through the door, and Roan pulled out his phone to text Marcus.

“Checking to make sure you’re alive. You’re missing the memorial,” he groaned, and Clarke yanked open her door. Her hair was curled and she was wearing a short black dress… like she was originally planning on attending the memorial. But she had no shoes on and held a bottle of whiskey in her other hand.

“Who sent you to check on me?” she snapped, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Maybe I was just worried about you,” he muttered, pushing past her into her apartment. He grabbed the bottle from her hand, surveying her small apartment. It certainly didn’t look like the kind of place a Griffin would live in. Too small, too run down. He wondered if her mother even knew this was where Clarke was living.

“What do you want, Roan?” Clarke groaned, shutting the door.

“I would like to know why you aren’t at your friend’s memorial and why you aren’t answering my calls,” he replied, setting the bottle down on her kitchen counter.

“I didn’t want to go and I didn’t want to talk to you,” she muttered, leaning against the doorframe. “And I didn’t invite you in. Didn’t Nia Kingsley teach you that this behavior is rude?”

He pressed his lips together, turning around to lean back against the counter. He gave Clarke another once over, noticing that her makeup looked a little too polished… which meant she hadn’t been crying. “Professor Kane wants to know why you aren’t at the memorial and if you’re okay. I came in to find out.”

“I’m fine, and what I do when I’m not working for him is my own business. And I’m sure you’ve already told him that, so why are you here?” she growled, narrowing her eyes defiantly back at him.

“I already told you. I was worried.”

“Worried? That the same excuse you used when you suggested that Kane sideline me for the insider trading case?” she spat back, and Roan’s eyes flickered to the bottle of whiskey. She hadn’t drunk enough to be drunk. In fact, she was sounding pretty damn sober.

“You just lost your friend. It seemed like a considerate thing to do, to give you a break from the stressful job,” he snapped.

“The most considerate thing to do was to ask what I wanted,” she argued, and Roan looked down at his feet, swallowing as he got his thoughts back together.

“Wells had just died. You were in shock, Clarke. You showed up late to class, you were snapping at Bellamy… I just thought—”

“I had to see the body, Roan,” she growled, and Roan snapped his head up to look at her. Her jaw was tense as she spoke, and he could see that she was struggling to keep herself together. “I had to stand there as some stranger pulled the sheet off my friend so I could confirm he was dead. The next day, I got up and went to class and went to work, because all I wanted was to think about something messy and stressful and complicated so that I could get that image out of my head for just a moment,” she shouted, and Roan pushed himself off the counter to move toward her.

“Clarke,” he whispered, and she started shaking her head frantically, holding back tears.

“But, you didn’t let me have that for just one fucking day, did you?” she snapped, before hitting him in the chest. “And now, you show up at my apartment demanding to know why I didn’t show up at that damn memorial.”

“Clarke, I’m sorry,” he whispered, but she kept shaking her head.

“That memorial has maybe three people there that actually knew Wells. Everyone else is there to get closer to Thelonious or my mother or me… looking to use this opportunity to help themselves,” she muttered, and Roan swallowed. He knew exactly what Clarke was talking about. It was something he had to deal with when his grandfather died. So many people used opportunities like this to get closer to him and his mother… to buy themselves favors in the future.

“I could get Kane to tell your mother and Jaha that you’re sick,” he offered, as Clarke brushed the tears off her face with the back of her hand.

“Yeah, fine,” she whispered, her eyes now fixed downward. He pulled out the phone to text Marcus.

They stood there in silence for a few moments, and Roan couldn’t figure out what he should do. He had a feeling he should leave, since Clarke didn’t even want him there in the first place. She purposefully ignored his calls and didn’t exactly invite him in. But he didn’t want to leave.

“I’m sorry I convinced Kane to sideline you. I didn’t do it to upset you, but I should have asked what you wanted,” he forced himself to say, even though he was pretty sure he would do the exact same thing again. From a practical standpoint, it was risky to have her go out and interview employees while in that state. At least now he had a somewhat accurate read on how Clarke was doing.

“It’s fine,” she muttered, brushing past him back into her tiny kitchen to grab the bottle of whiskey. She pulled two glasses out of her cabinet, and Roan swallowed nervously. He really shouldn’t be here, alone with her. And he definitely shouldn’t have a drink with her. Yet, he didn’t turn it down when she offered him a glass.

“So, why hadn’t you spoken to Wells in a while?” he asked, as Clarke sat herself on top of the counter, before taking a sip. “I mean, that’s clearly what’s bothering you, right?”

“I mean, I’m also bothered by the fact that my friend was murdered, but yeah… that guilt is bothering me too,” she muttered, shaking her head. “And you already kind of know why we stopped speaking.”

Roan took a sip from his glass, thinking back to the accusations he laid on her about Wells. So, he was right, he realized. “Trust me, I understand,” he replied, thinking over how his arrangement with Ontari left him with a similar bitter taste in his mouth. “How long has it been since you got cut off?” he asked, glancing around her apartment.

Clarke’s jaw dropped slightly, probably surprised that he figured that out without her saying anything. “I got cut off around the same time I stopped speaking to Wells,” she replied, and he nodded. That made sense.

They stood there in comfortable silence. Well, relative silence. The TV Guide channel was providing a dull background noise from the other room, and one of her neighbors seemed to be yelling at someone.

“Why are you here, Roan?” Clarke asked, and Roan furrowed his brows in confusion.

“I told you. I came to check on you.”

“You could have left after I shouted at you through the door. That would have been enough for Professor Kane,” she retorted, cocking her head to the side.

“I wanted to make sure you were okay. Do I really have to explain that?” he groaned, and a ghost of a smile appeared on Clarke’s lips.

“Yes,” she said smugly, and he rolled his eyes.

“Clarke,” he sighed. She hopped off the counter and took three steps forward, stopping right in front of him.

She glanced up at him with her inquisitive blue eyes, and asked, “What’s going on here, Roan?” And there it was, the question he had been wondering about for weeks. The question that popped up in his mind every time Clarke caught him looking at her, every time he ended up with her working beside time, every time he got a moment alone to talk to her.

“Nothing,” he lied, putting the glass down behind him on the counter. His personal attraction aside, this was the wrong timing. They had both been drinking, Roan had his own shit to deal with, and Clarke wasn’t in the best mental state either. It didn’t help that she looked gorgeous or that her hair almost looked better slightly messed up. And it definitely didn’t help when he thought back to how damn impressed he was when she figured out how Indra got framed, how no matter how hard Kane tried to keep her out of it, she still found a way to be the most brilliant person in the room.

“I thought lawyers were supposed to be good liars,” Clarke replied, raising an eyebrow at him. He swallowed, not breaking eye contact with her.

“Clarke,” he warned as she stepped toward him with a mischievous glint in her eye.

“Tell me to stop,” she challenged as she straightened his tie, her face now just inches away from his. He could smell her perfume now, a scent he would only get brief whiffs of when passing by her in the house. She was so close… too close. He knew he should leave. That was the right thing to do. The responsible thing. But he also couldn’t bring himself to move his legs. “Something wrong?” she asked innocently, her eyes fluttering up to meet his, and Roan suddenly felt like he couldn’t breathe.

He let his eyes drop, mistakenly thinking that if he could look away from those eyes, he’d be fine. But, he caught a glimpse at her chest, before closing his eyes quickly. He knew what the right thing to do in the situation was. Deep down, he knew what he should do.

But that plan went out the window as soon as he felt Clarke’s lips crash into his. His fingers got tangled in her messy curls as he backed her against the counter. He could feel her try to loosen his tie frantically, as his tongue dove into her whiskey-flavored mouth, searching for her tongue.

He pulled away, kissing a line down her throat, while her fingers gripped onto his hair. He practically whimpered into her skin as he kissed the exposed parts of her breasts.

She pulled his head up, gripping his face between her hands before pressing her lips into his again. She moaned into his mouth, as her arms wrapped around his neck. “Fuck, Clarke,” he murmured, before she bit his bottom lip playfully.

Her blue eyes looked dark as she looked back at him, and now Roan couldn’t remember all the reasons he had for leaving. He picked her up and set her down on the counter top, standing in between her spread legs as she leaned down to kiss him again. His hands were resting on her bare thighs, slowly pushing her dress up more and more with each kiss.

“Roan, please,” she whimpered, as Roan teasingly rested his hand over the fabric of her panties. He smirked into her neck, before going back to sucking at her pulse point. He could feel her arousal gathering, and before long, she would start begging for him to help her out. He let his thumb slowly slide up and down the fabric, teasing her… savoring the soft little sighs escaping her lips.

He captured her lips with his as he started pressing harder against the fabric. She was moaning appreciatively into his mouth, her hands gripping onto his hair tightly as their lips crashed against each other.

He finally pulled away, only so he could start tugging her panties off. She lifted her hips, and Roan tried not to look too smug over how breathless Clarke was for him.

“My room is just over there,” Clarke said, gesturing her head to the left. Roan raised an eyebrow at her, as he pulled her to the edge of the counter.

“Good to know,” he teased, before getting down on his knees in front of her. She might have said something clever in response, but he wasn’t listening anymore. He was too busy debating whether or not to tease her further.

He ultimately gave in, running his tongue along her slit. He pushed her folds apart, savoring the sight of her clit throbbing for him. He could feel his own pants tighten at the sight. He dove in, latching his mouth onto her clit so he could gently suck on it.

Her hands were both in his hair, desperate for something to hold onto. It took all the power in him not to smirk at her eagerness. He slowly pressed a finger inside her, savoring how tightly her pussy clenched around his finger. His erection became harder to ignore as he imagined how it would feel to be inside of her.

“Fuck,” he whispered, before pressing a slow kiss to her clit. He slid another finger inside her, loving Clarke’s sharp intake of breath in response.

“Roan,” she moaned, and Roan let his eyes drift up to her face as he thrust his fingers in and out of her. Her eyes were closed and she was sexily biting her bottom lip. Her hair was even messier now, after Roan had messed it up earlier.

He replaced his fingers with his tongue, earning a whimper from Clarke’s gorgeous lips. He thrust into her, savoring her sweet taste as her fingers greedily gripped onto his head, pushing him closer to where she needed him. He gripped onto her ass, pulling her as close to his face as possible.

If her moans were any indication, she was very close. She was whimpering his name. Her legs were starting to shake slightly. She was gripping tightly on the counter with one hand, trying to keep herself balanced as his tongue fucked her.

And then, he had her screaming as her arousal flooded into him. He pressed a few slow kisses around her cunt, listening to her frantic breathing even out.

He wiped his face with the back of his hand as he stood back up. Clarke’s face was flushed, her lips parted as she watched him with hooded eyes.

“Didn’t know you were a screamer,” he teased, as Clarke breathlessly leaned forward to start undoing his belt.

“Well, I didn’t know you were so good with your mouth,” she retorted, and Roan cupped her face before landing his lips onto hers, making her taste herself on his tongue. She whimpered into his mouth, and Roan took over undoing his pants, since she was still recovering from her orgasm.

She started kissing down his throat as Roan pulled a condom out of his pocket. She bit down on his collarbone as he fumbled with getting it on.

“You sure you don’t want to do this in a bed?” she teased, before Roan pulled her off the counter. He turned her around quickly, making her face the countertop.

“I’m sure,” he whispered right in her ear, before biting her earlobe gently. “Hands on the counter, Clarke,” he growled, and Clarke leaned forward, practically taunting him with her hips. He pushed he dress up, exposing her beautiful ass to him. He palmed her ass for a moment, appreciating how soft her skin felt under his fingertips.

Slowly, he pressed himself into her, pausing every few seconds for Clarke to voice her discomfort. But this only made her impatient.

“Come on, Roan,” she whined, before he thrust all the way into her.  She gripped onto the side of the counter as Roan pulled back out.

“So fucking tight,” he murmured, as he got settled in his pace. One of his hands stayed on her hips, while the other travelled up her dress, cupping her breast through the fabric. He bit his lip, enjoying the realization that he was right about her breasts… they fit perfectly in his hands.

She let out a few whimpers as he slammed into her, and Roan let his hand abandon her breast so he could run his fingers through her soft curls. She moaned at the sensation, and fuck, he loved the sound of her moans.

“You like it a little rough, don’t you, Clarke?” he teased.

“Yeah,” she whispered breathlessly, and Roan bit his lip. He tugged her hair slightly, savoring the whimper that escaped her lips.

Her moans only got louder as he thrust in and out of her, and Roan wasn’t sure he could last this long if she was going to keep sounding so sexy. He pulled out of her quickly, before pulling her off the counter. He started attacked her neck with kisses and small bites, as he held her against his chest.

“Roan, please,” she whispered, tilting her head to lock eyes with him. Her eyes looked so desperate and hungry.

“Please, what?” he teased.

“Fuck me,” Clarke whimpered, her voice breaking as she spoke. He turned her around, before crashing his lips against hers again. He lifted her up, and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he backed her into the wall. She sank back down on his cock with ease, and Roan groaned at the sensation of being inside her again.

“That what you needed?” he teased, before Clarke bit his bottom lip with a nod. He let out a groan, before capturing her lips with his again. These kisses were messier than the others, hungrier, as Roan pounded into her.

He could hardly catch his breath as he felt her tighten around him. Her hands were pulling on his hair and he captured her screams with his lips.

When he came undone, he buried his face into her neck, grunting into her flushed skin.

He held her there for a few moments, pressing slow kisses to her throat as they both caught their breath. When he put her down, they separated. Clarke tugged her panties back on as Roan tucked himself back into his pants.

“Still gonna try and say nothing is going on here?” Clarke teased, cocking her head to the side.

 

**Three Months Later**

 

_Echo_

 

She started pacing on the sidewalk, pulling her coat tighter around her. She glanced down at her phone. Roan should have been here half an hour ago.

She finally explained to Marcus that she had been drinking and needed a ride before she could get over to the house, and he seemed to have calmed down enough since their last phone call.

When he finally pulled up, Echo jumped into the passenger side. “Where the fuck have you been?” she growled, and Roan threw his hand up warningly.

“Clarke stopped by my apartment,” he snapped, and Echo let out a huff.

“Just drive,” she muttered, shaking her head. Of course, he was still caught up in Clarke drama, even with everything going on. He didn’t bat an eye as the truth about Jaha came out, didn’t seem bothered by the fact that he was now missing. What he did care about was the fact that Bellamy posted a photo with Clarke at the bonfire and that Clarke wasn’t answering Roan’s calls.

“She was wearing his scarf. I recognized it,” he growled, and Echo forced herself to take a deep breath.

“You don’t get to be pissed at Clarke,” she snapped, and Roan kept his eyes on the road as he turned onto University Drive. “You are literally married. And you didn’t bother to tell her that little fact about yourself. Don’t act like you weren’t asking for this!”

Roan swallowed, before pulling onto Marcus’ street. They said nothing as they got out of the car, and Echo realized she forgot to ask why Clarke stopped by his apartment. She blew it off, though… not wanting to sound like she gave a shit about if things worked out between them. Clarke deserved better, and Roan knew better.

They let themselves into the house, and Echo spotted Marcus pacing in the living room. Roan immediately crossed over to him, asking him about what happened with Jaha. Echo stopped by the stairs, realizing that something was off.

“Echo, all of his things upstairs are gone now,” Marcus shouted to her, and Echo started walking into the living room. That’s when she realized that normally her feet didn’t sound so loud as she made her way to the couch. She glanced down, realizing that the rug was missing.

“Well, if you don’t mind, I’ll go see if he left anything behind,” Echo said, narrowing her eyes at Marcus.

“No need. I’ve already torn apart the entire upstairs,” he replied a little too quickly, and Echo forced herself to nod in response. He gestured for Roan to follow him back toward the kitchen, and Echo glanced around the room.

She noticed the trophy that the kids fought over sitting on a shelf behind the couch… right by where Roan was standing just moments ago. She could have sworn it wasn’t there when she first came in.

“You know, in case something happens to him, you’ll need to get your alibi in order,” Echo said as she walked into the kitchen, and Marcus’ eyes widened at her. Roan jumped slightly, looking more flustered than usual.

“He ran. I don’t need an alibi,” Marcus snapped, and that tone confirmed all the suspicion she had. The missing rug, Roan’s nervous behavior, the timing of the phone call, the fact that Marcus didn’t want her upstairs looking for Jaha’s belongings… Jaha was dead, and Marcus and Roan killed him.


	4. Too Close to Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think it's safe to assume that every chapter from here on out will have SMUT. And this one is absolutely no exception lol. 
> 
> Anyway, thanks for all the feedback! You guys are awesome! I always look forward to comments, so please hit me up :) love you guys!

_Raven_

 

When Murphy dropped the match, Raven took a huge step back, watching Jaha’s body quickly get engulfed in flames. They were so close to being done. Only a few things left to do and then they could all spend the rest of their lives trying to forget this night.

Raven glanced over at Monty, who was curled up against the tree hyperventilating. She had snapped at him one too many times tonight, and knew an apology was probably necessary. But she didn’t know what to say to him. There was nothing she could say. He witnessed a man get murdered, and then spent the entire night trying to get rid of his body.

She let out a breath, tucking her hands into her pockets as she shivered. She realized that she would probably have to get everything she was wearing cleaned or throw it all away. She was pretty sure none of the blood splattered onto her, but she might have missed it amongst the screaming and the body falling to the ground.  

Clarke’s phone started ringing again, and Raven jerked her head up to look at Clarke.

“Tell Roan to fuck off,” Murphy muttered, still pacing near the fire.

“Roan is calling you?” Bellamy asked, stepping toward Clarke with furrowed brows.

“Answer it,” Raven said, and Clarke’s wide eyes flickered up to meet her.

“Have you lost your mind?” Clarke snapped, and Raven let out a huff.

“No, she’s right. He’ll hear the fire in the background. It’ll strengthen our alibi,” Bellamy explained, but he still looked uneasy. Raven bit her lip, glancing back at Monty. But he was too busy freaking out to be able to say anything.

“What do you want?” Clarke growled into the phone, stepping away from Bellamy… not that it did any good since Bellamy seemed to be her shadow tonight. “Yeah, I’m still at the bonfire. Why do you keep calling me?”

Raven plopped down on the ground, realizing that she was going to need some rest before this next part. Murphy sat down next to her with a huff.

“What was on that phone?” Raven whispered, and Murphy clenched his jaw in response.

“I have no idea. Don’t think Emori did either,” he replied, and Raven narrowed her eyes at him. She could see him not knowing what was on it… but there was no way Emori didn’t.

“No, I’m busy tonight,” Clarke snapped, and Raven’s eyes flickered up to her, her face lit by the fire engulfing Thelonious Jaha’s body. Clarke glanced at Raven, who raised her eyebrows to remind her about the alibi. “All of us were studying for exams and we wanted a break, so we went to the bonfire,” she sighed, before turning back around in her pacing. She took one glance at Bellamy, and quickly turned back toward Raven with an annoyed look on her face. “I said all of us, didn’t I? That includes Bellamy,” she growled.

“You did remember to buy trash bags, right?” Raven whispered, and Murphy nodded.

Then, she noticed something strange flash across Clarke’s face, before she hung up on Roan. “Did we put the trophy back in the house?” Clarke asked, staring nervously at Bellamy.

Raven and Murphy exchanged a glance, realizing that no one remembered that small little detail. They couldn’t all go back to Kane’s house. He was probably home by then.

“Monty, I think—” Bellamy tried to say, before interrupted by Monty’s loud intake of breath.

“No, no. I’m not going back there. I can’t,” Monty replied, shaking his head frantically. But Raven saw what Bellamy was thinking… it had to be Monty. No one else could show up at the house with the trophy and not draw suspicion.

“Yeah, you’re gonna have to,” Murphy snapped, standing up to pace over to him. Clarke jumped in front of Murphy before he could get over to Monty. “We’ve all had to do things tonight that we didn’t want to do, princess,” he growled, glaring down at Clarke.

“Monty, it’ll be okay. Kane won’t suspect anything if you show up with it,” Bellamy reassured, but Monty buried his face in his hands, shaking it slightly.

“We’ll find another way to get it back there,” Clarke said hopefully, but Raven just rolled her eyes.

“Monty was the last one to earn the trophy. There isn’t another person who could walk it into the house tonight without earning suspicion,” Raven huffed.

“I’ll take care of it,” Clarke said quickly, and Raven snapped her head in her direction, furrowing her brows in confusion. Raven had no idea how Clarke had stayed so together tonight, how she wasn’t as much of a basket case as Monty… because Raven knew that the second this was all over and she was alone, she was going to lose her fucking mind.

 

**Two and a Half Months Earlier**

 

_Echo_

 

“I really don’t think this is necessary,” Clarke sighed, leaning back in her chair. Echo raised her eyebrows at Marcus, pointing out that she said the same damn thing… but she was outvoted by Roan and Marcus, of course.

“Look, I’m sure you’ve had ample preparation for these kinds of statements,” Marcus replied, and Echo noticed a small twitch in Clarke’s lips at those words. “But Roan and I discussed this, and it can’t hurt.”

“Okay, let me break it down for you: none of us think you had anything to do with Wells’ death. But the police department was far more vicious with Thelonious about it than we expected, and we don’t want you to get rattled and say something reckless that could get you in trouble,” Echo groaned, and Marcus nodded appreciatively. Clarke seemed to understand that, at least. Echo had noticed that Clarke wasn’t as inclined to listen to Marcus, probably because he had been an asshole to her since day one of class. But Echo and Clarke had an unspoken respect for each other… which would make this easier. “I’ve been told if you can survive getting torn apart by me, nothing a detective can say will phase you,” she joked, and Clarke’s lips started to form a ghost of a smile.

“Alright, I’ve got work to do. Echo, don’t make Clarke cry,” Marcus joked, but Echo knew there was a bit of truth to his tone. He stepped out of Echo’s office, before closing the door behind him. She waited until she heard him walk down the stairs before she said anything.

“Alright,” Echo sighed, plopping down at her desk chair. “Can you start off by telling me how you met Wells Jaha?”

“I was probably five or six when I first remember him coming over. I might have met him earlier, but I was too young to remember. My mom was friends with his mom,” she explained, and Echo cocked her head to the side, knowing that wasn’t entirely true.

“So, your families were close?” she asked, and Clarke nodded. “How close?”

“We would go on vacations together. Wells and I went to all the same schools. His dad used to work under my grandfather. His dad was also one of the primary donors for my dad when he decided to run for office,” Clarke replied, and Echo nodded… she was being just vague enough. She definitely had been trained for this kind of interrogation.

“What is the exact nature of your relationship to Wells in your more recent history?”

“Just friends,” Clarke said quickly, and Echo narrowed her eyes at Clarke.

“Wrong answer, Clarke. It’ll be way too easy for someone to negate that. Then, your entire statement gets called into question,” Echo snapped.

“Okay, Wells and I wanted to be just friends. Our families tried to push us to being something more.”

“Why would they do that?” Echo already knew the answer, of course. She just needed to see how Clarke would explain it away… in a way that wouldn’t get her into trouble with her family or the Jaha’s.

“They have a history of that kind of thing. They weren’t crazy about who I was dating, and they kept pushing me toward Wells as a result. He was the kind of person they thought I should be with. His family is wealthy, he had a bright future… he was exactly the kind of person they thought I should end up with.”

“When you say they weren’t crazy about who you were dating, are you talking about Lexa Woods?” Echo asked, and Clarke swallowed. Her eyes dropped to the ground, and Echo could see her struggle to piece together how Echo could have known about her. “Answer the question, Clarke. You have no idea which people you trust could have gabbed to the police about your secrets. You have to assume that whoever asks you questions already knows these things.”

Then, she saw the recognition dance across Clarke’s features. Her face hardened, and Echo knew that Clarke figured out that Roan had told her. Echo had to bite the inside of her mouth to keep from smirking.

“Yes,” Clarke said calmly, but the anger was still in her eyes. “I was with Lexa around the time that my family started pressuring me to be with Wells. It was around that time that Wells and I had a falling out.”

“Have you two spoken since this ‘falling out?’”

“Once. We talked on the phone for a few minutes around a month before he went missing. It was an argument,” Clarke replied, pushing her hair out of her face.

“What was the argument about?”

“There’s this girl he started hanging out with. Her name is Emori,” Clarke explained, and Echo pulled the cap off her pen and started writing this down. This could be helpful, just in case.  

 

_Monty_

 

“He was a nervous wreck. Like I just kept waiting for him to ask the question and all he did was start repeating himself. It was so cute,” Harper teased, leaning onto Monty’s shoulder. He took a sip of his beer, feeling a blush creep up to his cheeks.

“Let’s see that ring again,” Raven said excitedly, and Harper leaned over to show Raven and Clarke, who had already complimented Monty on his taste over and over again.

“Didn’t take you for a carriage ride through the park kind of guy,” Murphy teased, and Bellamy threw his head back laughing.

“Shut up, you two. It’s sweet,” Clarke said, and Monty shot her an appreciative glance.

“So, Monty tells me you’re seeing someone,” Harper said to Raven, and Monty nearly choked on his beer. He had forgotten to remind Harper not to bring that up.

“Uh, it’s complicated,” Raven deflected, her face turning sour. She hadn’t said anything to the others, but Monty got the impression that things weren’t going well with her girlfriend. She was in a more foul mood lately, and nearly bit Murphy’s head off when he referred to Luna as Raven’s “girlfriend.”

“Have you two set a date yet?” Clarke intervened, and Monty let out a breath.

“We’re looking at a few different dates after Monty’s first year is over. I’m sure he’ll let you all know as soon as we decide so you can mark it on your calendars,” Harper explained, putting her hand in Monty’s.

Raven wiggled her eyebrows at Monty teasingly, especially since Monty had expressed that he wasn’t sure he wanted to invite all of them to his wedding. Clarke and Raven were fine, and most days pretty friendly… but he hardly knew Murphy and Bellamy.

Raven leaned over to whisper something in Clarke’s ear that made Clarke roll her eyes, before getting up.

“Son of a bitch,” Murphy muttered, checking his phone. “Did you get your essay grade back?”

“Yeah, and apparently that dick doesn’t believe in a curve,” Bellamy groaned, brushing his fingers through his hair. Monty furrowed his brows, but resisted the urge to check his phone. He promised Harper he would stay off his phone as much as possible during her visit.

“Where did Clarke go?” Monty asked, ignoring the nerve wrecking argument that Murphy and Bellamy were having about the essay they all turned in last week. The last thing he needed to do was spend his night worrying about a grade that he had no control over.

“My ex is working at the bar, so she’s getting me another drink,” Raven sighed, and Monty’s eyes flickered over to the bar, trying to figure out which bartender was Raven’s ex. None of them looked like her type.

“What is Clarke’s deal?” Harper asked, and Monty rolled his eyes. He really didn’t know all that much about Clarke… other than the stuff about her family that the others had let slip. Clarke seemed to be a pretty private person.

“Most recently, I’m pretty sure she’s got a secret boyfriend,” Raven said, and Monty let out a groan. Raven loved gossiping about Clarke’s life, a little too much… even more so now that her personal life isn’t going too great. “No, hear me out. She’s in a much better mood these days, which means she’s getting laid.”

“But, Bellamy is always getting laid and is never in a good mood,” Murphy teased, and Bellamy immediately smacked him in the back of the head before grumbling to himself.

“I think you just proved his point,” Monty joked, earning a glare from Bellamy. Clarke came back, carrying two drinks. “Hey, Clarke, Raven wants to know if you have a secret boyfriend.”

“What?” Clarke asked, furrowing her brows in confusion.

“Okay, maybe not a secret boyfriend. But you’ve at least gotten laid recently,” Raven argued, as Clarke plopped down next to her.

“Well, yeah,” she replied with a shrug before taking a sip out of her glass.

“Who is it?” Raven asked, hitting Clarke on the arm hard enough to make Clarke choke on her drink. Monty forced himself to look down at his drink, not wanting to give away the fact that he knew the answer to that question. Well, he didn’t know for sure… but he had a pretty damn good idea.

Clarke opened her mouth to say something, but her phone went off before she said anything. Then, Monty’s phone went off. One by one, each of their phones dinged with a text message.

“I fucking hate him,” Raven groaned, as she stood up to grab her jacket.

“Oh, come on. Do you guys really have to work tonight?” Harper whined, and Monty nodded sadly.

Monty was beyond pissed when they got to the police station. There was no reason they had to come in this late at night for a woman who got busted for having sex in a public park. Kane didn’t need their help to get the charges dropped.

“Not every case is going to be as exciting as having a serial killer,” Roan grumbled, elbowing Bellamy in the side. Monty glanced behind him, noticing that Clarke was going out of her way to not walk next to Roan. Maybe he was wrong about them hooking up…

“Honestly, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I never needed a lawyer before,” the woman explained as she crossed the room over to them. Monty cocked his head to the side, realizing this was not what he expected when Kane said they were dealing with a public indecency charge… this Becca woman looked just like a mom.

“Don’t worry about it. All charges have been dropped, no one will know… not even your husband,” Kane announced, and Becca let out a sigh of relief.

“You sure you want to get married?” Murphy teased, and Monty narrowed his eyes back at him. As they started to escort Becca outside, Monty pulled out his phone to let Harper know he would be home sooner than he expected.

Then, he heard a couple of cars pull up by the sidewalk. He glanced up, seeing FBI vans surrounding them as a few agents hopped out and approached Becca.

“What is going on here? Her charges have all been dropped,” Kane snapped, stepping toward the agent who was putting handcuffs on Becca.

“Her fingerprints were a positive match for a fugitive wanted for felony murder in connection with the 2003 bombing of the world financial institute,” another agent explained, stepping toward Kane with a warrant in hand. Monty glanced over at Roan and Echo, whose jaws were dropped.

“No, that woman’s name is Alie,” Kane mumbled, reading over the warrant.

“I’m not gonna get to go home to Harper tonight, am I?” Monty asked, and Clarke shook her head.

“We’ll be lucky if we get to sleep tonight,” she sighed.

 

_Marcus_

 

He vowed this was the last time he let Diana refer him to potential new clients…

Of course, a simple drop of charges wasn’t going to be in the cards for tonight. Things had been too easy. So, he got stuck with a new client who had changed her name after participating in the bombing fourteen years ago.

The kids looked as rough as he felt as he rolled into class the next morning. They had been up all night at the house, going over the case and looking for anything that could reduce the long sentence that Becca was looking at.

All things considered… the deal for ten years was generous. Chris and Peri had already served more than that. Sure, Cole McAdams was still serving time, but he was the ringleader in their little organization. He bore the most weight when they accidentally killed that man.

Marcus slammed the trophy down on the front table, casually reminding his five interns that it was up for grabs again. Maybe that would be the incentive they needed to wake the hell up.

“Someone talk to me about United States V. Hearst,” he said, glancing around the room at all the eager students raising their hands. Then, he nodded at Murphy.

“Patty Hearst was on trial for armed bank robbery. The defense argued that she was both brainwashed and coerced by her kidnappers,” he explained, blinking a few more times than he probably should have. Marcus made a mental note to go for a coffee run after this class was over.

“Miss Reyes, please explain why that defense did not work,” Marcus sighed, and Raven stood up.

“You can’t be both under duress and brainwashed. It had to be one or the other. Brainwashing probably would have been the more effective argument,” she explained, and he pressed his lips together. He wasn’t sure that was necessarily true… but she understood what he was getting at.

“Miss Griffin, what is the first key to a mind-control defense?”

“You have to establish the brainwasher, the criminal action’s mastermind that the whole thing could be pinned on,” she explained.

“And what do you do once that is established?” he asked, cocking his head in her direction. But Clarke seemed to be a bit slower than normal as she thought this over. He leaned back, tapping slightly on the top of the trophy. He needed them all sharper than this if they were going to get through the trial.

“Establish that the criminal act was conceived by said ringleader alone,” Bellamy jumped in, earning a very annoyed glare from Clarke. Good… they were all starting to get a little too comfortable.

Marcus wasn’t in a rush to get back to the house. The kids all had their assignments, and he needed more coffee. He was waiting for his order when Echo called.

“Tell me one of them found McAdams,” he groaned, since his testimony was the surest way to get Becca off for this.

“That’s not what this is about. But Reyes is on it.”

“So, you mean her girlfriend is on it,” he sighed, trapping the phone between his shoulder and ear as he picked up his coffee from the counter.

“Probably. Anyways, you know that girl they arrested for Wells’ murder?” she asked, and Marcus grunted in affirmation. He vaguely recalled seeing that on the news this morning, but really didn’t pay too much attention. All he cared about was that it wasn’t Thelonious or Clarke. “Clarke mentioned her in our mock interrogation.”

“Does she know anything helpful?” he asked, furrowing his brows.

“Yeah, I think so. I didn’t push her too hard on it, since it’s probably better if I don’t know much,” Echo sighed, and Marcus pressed his lips together. “But I don’t think Emori did it.”

“Well, she’s fucked however you look at it. She’s a drug dealer who was in close contact with the victim on the night of the murder. Court of public opinion has already convicted her,” he explained as he pushed the door open.

“Marcus,” Echo snapped, and he bit his lip. He should have known that Echo would get hung up on this case. It hit a little too close to home.

“We can’t touch the case, Echo. Our client is Thelonious, remember?” he sighed, and was met by silence on the other end.

“Right,” she huffed.

 

_Roan_

 

He wasn’t sure if he could stomach listening to another one of these cult member’s testimonies… Not one of them was apologetic for the pipe bomb that went off.

Marcus did a decent enough job in court, explaining to the jury about how the “fasts” that the group went on were really just how McAdams’ imposed food deprivation as a brainwashing technique. Echo’s scorecard for the jury had it looking favorable for them so far.

Marcus got each of them to admit that Cole never consulted them on plans, and even got one of them to admit that Becca, or Alie, was consulted either.

Roan glanced over his shoulder during Peri’s testimony, seeing Monty fast asleep on Clarke’s shoulder. He made eye contact with Clarke for a brief second before she glanced away. He swallowed, realizing that she was still pissed at him for what he told Echo… even though he only did it to help prepare Clarke for the damn interrogation.

“We aren’t going to win unless we get McAdams here,” Echo leaned forward to whisper, and Roan nodded. He knew a quicker way to find McAdams, since it was clear he was being hidden by the feds in the prison system… but he would only reach out to his mother if it was absolutely necessary. He just hoped Reyes could deliver.

When they got back to the house, Murphy made some flimsy excuse for needing to leave. Marcus didn’t seem to bat an eye… which Roan found strange. If any of the other interns had tried that, he would have gone off on them. Reyes took off, saying that her source might have found McAdams.

Marcus and Echo took Becca back into his office, and he knew they were going to be in there for a while… especially since they needed to make a plan for when they found Cole McAdams.

Clarke, Bellamy, and Monty were seated on the couch, all working through the prosecution’s evidence.

“Clarke, can I talk to you in my office for a moment?” he asked, but Clarke didn’t even deign to look up at him.

“Can it wait? I might have found something,” she muttered, but he knew that was a lie. Clarke always got this excited glint in her eye when she figured something out. She was just blowing him off.

“No, it can’t,” he snapped, putting his hands in his pockets. Clarke finally glanced up, raising an eyebrow at him. Luckily, the other two were too sleep deprived or focused to notice the hostile exchange.

She let out a huff, tossing her packet into Bellamy’s lap, before standing up. He gave her a once over, noticing she was wearing that short skirt he liked so much… and she fucking knew he liked it.

She stormed past him, not even sparing him a glance as she made her way to the stairs. Roan glanced back over his shoulder to see if the others noticed… but they were both rubbing their eyes as they studied the papers in front of them. When this case was behind them, Roan would point out to Marcus that another element of mind control is sleep deprivation.

Roan quietly closed his office door behind him, and Clarke was leaning against his desk with crossed arms.

“Are you done acting like a child?” he snapped, cocking his head at her.

“I literally have not said anything unprofessional to you. I’m talking to you about as much as I talk to everyone else here,” she replied, narrowing her eyes at him.

“You are purposefully ignoring me and my texts,” he groaned, running his fingers through his hair in frustration.

“I tend to do that when people reveal personal information about me without my consent,” she snapped, her voice calm with just a hint of bitterness.

“You needed to be prepared just in case one of the detectives asked you about her,” he whispered as he crossed over to her. She didn’t even look up at him.

“They wouldn’t have asked about her. No one knows about her.”

“I did,” he replied, narrowing his eyes at her.

“Only because I stupidly told you,” she snapped, before hitting his chest. He grabbed her wrist to keep her from trying that again.

“You could have stupidly told someone else. And if your connection to Lexa ever became public knowledge, you’d look a lot more guilty in Wells’ murder,” he argued, and Clarke bit her lip, shaking her head.

“You know I had nothing to do with what happened to Lexa,” she muttered, and he let out a sigh.

“Of course, I know that. But you have to admit that you would look pretty guilty if it got out. I didn’t want you to be blindsided if a detective showed up with that information,” he explained, and Clarke thought this over. She had an airtight alibi for the night Wells died, and the night that Lexa died… it would just draw a lot of suspicion to her if that connection was made and if she reacted poorly to the accusations that would likely follow.

He knew Clarke wasn’t a murderer, and hasn’t had the financial means to hire anyone for the job in a long time. She loved Wells and she loved Lexa. That much was made very clear to Roan.

“You still could have warned me before Echo grilled me about it,” Clarke sighed, her blue eyes flickering up to Roan. He took this as an invitation, stepping toward her to push her hair behind her ear.

“I’m sorry,” he replied, and Clarke pressed her lips together.

“I’m still mad at you,” she whispered, but he could hear her resolve start to come undone as she spoke. He leaned down and pressed a slow kiss to her lips.

“How about now?” he smirked.

“Still mad.”

“What’ll it take? Do I have to get on my knees and beg for your forgiveness?” he teased, and Clarke’s lips started to suppress her smirk.

“Well, I like the idea of you on your knees,” she whispered, and Roan leaned forward to take her bottom lip between his teeth.

“Right now?” he asked, letting his hands slide up her thighs, under her skirt.

“It’s not like we can do much until Raven finds McAdams, and Kane is going to be busy with Becca for at least an hour,” she replied, as his thumbs hooked under the elastic of her panties.

“You better stay quiet,” he warned as he started to tug her panties down her thighs. She sucked in a breath, and he could tell she really didn’t think he would go through with this. As soon as they were off, he got her seated on top of his desk. He loved the way she gripped the side of his desk as he ducked down between her legs. “And let me know when I’ve earned your forgiveness,” he teased, before running his tongue slowly up her slit.

 

_Bellamy_

 

After pouring himself another cup of coffee, Bellamy settled back down on the couch and tried to reread one of the original testimonies for the third time. He started to doze off the last time, and the time before that… well, he read it and immediately had no memory of what he just read.

Monty had fallen asleep in the papers, and Bellamy had to admit it looked so nice… he could just drift off right now. But he fought his own eyes, reminding himself that Kane could come out of his office at any moment and Bellamy needed to look like he was working his ass off.

As he combed through the testimony in front of him, he realized that the witness never actually mentioned Alie by name… but she named all the others who got convicted. Bellamy looked up the witness, finding her obituary from a few years ago. He wasn’t sure if this was anything. After all, just because she left off Alie’s name didn’t mean that Alie wasn’t a part of it. But it was a part of the original testimony that couldn’t be updated since the witness died without including Alie in her testimony.

He glanced up, realizing that he could hear Kane arguing with Becca… or Alie… in his office still. He decided to head up to Roan’s office to ask him about it, since he wasn’t about to risk Kane biting his head off for interrupting him with something that might turn out to be nothing.

He lightly knocked on Roan’s door, but he heard no response. He slowly nudged the door open, since it wasn’t even completely closed in the first place. Suddenly, Bellamy saw why Roan didn’t hear him knock on the door.

Clarke was spread out across his desk, her shirt unbuttoned and her skirt hiked up all the way with Roan’s head tucked between her thighs. Bellamy tried to avert his gaze, to remind himself that he just walked in on something he wasn’t supposed to see. But neither of them heard him come in, and Clarke’s head was thrown so far back that she couldn’t even see him.

“Fuck, Roan,” Clarke whimpered before Roan threw his hand over her mouth, muffling the moans coming out of her mouth. Bellamy could still hear her guttural moans struggling to break through, as her fingers dug deeper into Roan’s hair.

Bellamy swallowed, too consumed with the surprising sight in front of him to remember that he needed to leave. He wasn’t sure how he missed that the two of them had been hooking up, or how he didn’t notice that they had been up in his office for a little too long. His eyes dropped down to her breasts, seeing how they practically were spilling out of her light pink bra.

Roan finally removed his hand from Clarke’s mouth, dropping it down to her breast, squeezing it tightly. Bellamy bit his lip, observing how it took all of Roan’s large hand to caress her breast.

“Please, oh God,” she whispered, her voice strangled, and Bellamy glanced up to her face. Her eyes were shut, but her lips formed a gorgeous “O” as her chest heaved.

It wasn’t until Bellamy felt his pants tighten that he realized what was happening here. He quickly pulled his head from behind the door, and did his best to close it quietly. He closed his eyes and forced himself to take a breath… but he just got turned on by Clarke fucking Griffin.

He slowly made his way down the steps, seeing Monty fast asleep on the couch. He jogged down the last steps before rushing into the bathroom before anyone saw that he had an erection. He pressed his back against the bathroom door, as he processed what he just witnessed.

Sure, he had noticed before that Clarke was attractive. She might be a pain in the ass, but Bellamy wasn’t blind. He just never thought he was… attracted to her. She was the spoiled princess who kept stealing his trophy and one-upping him in class. She was a constant source of frustration for Bellamy. They hated each other.

And now… all Bellamy could think about was how fucking sexy she looked all spread out on Roan’s desk.

He tried to jerk his thoughts away from that image, redirecting his attention to the case. After all, they were running out of time. Becca could spend decades in prison, especially after rejecting that deal. A man fucking died in that bombing. And they had no idea where in the prison system the feds were hiding Cole McAdams.

No matter what scary thought he tried to force into his head, Clarke’s messy hair and strangled voice popped back in his damn head.

At this point, his cock was uncomfortably hard. He started to undo his pants, turning on the fan in the bathroom so no one could hear him. This didn’t have to be weird. He hated Clarke. She was a privileged pain in the ass, and nothing about what he just saw changes that. He was just having a normal reaction to that kind of image, and it needed to be dealt with.

He stroked the tip of his cock, spreading the precum on his hands. He tried to think about the last girl he slept with… Bree, he thinks her name was. Then, he shifted to Roma… but his sick brain kept drifting back to the damn princess.

He bit his lip, stifling a groan as he wrapped his hand tightly around his cock. He gave up trying to conjure up anyone else in his mind, since it was clear he was too sleep deprived to think straight. He gave in, thinking about how large Clarke’s breasts were… how his hand was probably around the same size as Roan’s… how her breasts would overflow onto his large hands.

Her voice sounded so strangled as she moaned for Roan… he could only imagine how it would sound if she wasn’t purposefully trying to stay quiet. God, and Bellamy’s name would probably sound even sexier slipping off her lips.

He shook his head rapidly, trying to get that particular thought out of his head. He didn’t want to fuck Clarke. She is just an attractive woman and Bellamy’s fucking caveman brain took over. All he needed was for her to start running her mouth again and Bellamy would remember why he never wanted to sleep with her. Although, he could find a much better use for her mouth…

Now, his thoughts were consumed with the image of Clarke leaning over to suck his cock… and fuck, that was an image that was working for him. Her blue eyes glancing up at him as she ran her tongue along the side of his cock… God, he would love to mess up those perfect blonde curls of hers while her pretty lips met the tip of his cock.

As soon as he came, he started panting… trying to make sense of what just came over him. He tucked himself back into his pants, deciding that he could resolve whatever weird feelings he had towards Clarke later. It probably didn’t mean anything. He just walked in on her at the wrong time and he was too sleep deprived to remember how horrible she is.

After a few minutes, Bellamy came back into the living room… seeing Clarke back in her spot on the couch, looking like nothing just happened. Bellamy blinked a few times, wondering if his sleep deprived brain just imagined that… But then, Roan came jogging down the stairs, looking more flushed than usual.

Bellamy hurried back over to the couch, trying his best to ignore the side glance Roan gave to Clarke as he walked past them.

“Monty, wake up,” Roan snapped, and Monty jerked awake. Clarke let out a slight giggle, but didn’t look up from the folder in her lap.

“Sorry,” Monty mumbled as he sat up.

“Bellamy, can you hand me a highlighter?” Clarke asked, narrowing her eyes at something. Bellamy leaned over to grab one off the coffee table before handing it to her. “Thanks,” she said, before popping the cap off with her mouth and highlighting something. For some reason, he looked at her mouth for a moment longer than he should have… losing his train of thought completely as Clarke bit the highlighter between her teeth as she read over what she just highlighted.

“I’m gonna go work in the kitchen,” he mumbled as he forced himself to stand up. There was no way in hell he was going to be able to focus around her after what he just witnessed.

 

_Murphy_

 

Murphy straightened his tie for the hundredth time before walking in. Her nervously flashed the fake identification, requesting to speak with Emori as her attorney. He knew this was a bad idea… that there were dozens of ways this could blow up in his face. But he needed to know what was on that phone or what the passcode was… or why the fuck Emori decided to hide it in his apartment…

He sat nervously, tapping his fingers on the table, waiting for the door to open. He sucked in a breath when Emori finally stumbled in. She looked different. Her hair was messier, she had no makeup on, and the orange jumpsuit was a bit too baggy for her.

“Emori, I’m from the Public Defender’s office,” Murphy lied, as the door behind her shut.

“There’s no way in hell you’re actually a lawyer,” she snapped as soon as she sat down across from him.

“This was the only way I could talk to you in private,” Murphy replied, leaning back in his chair. “What is on the phone, Emori?”

“What phone?” she asked, cocking her head to the side defiantly.

“Wells’ phone. You know, the guy whose murder you’ve been arrested for?” he growled, leaning forward on the table. “You needed to get the phone out of your possession… is it because there’s something on there that will prove you did it?” he asked, shaking his head.

“I didn’t kill Wells,” she muttered, before pressing her lips tightly together.

“Is there something on there that will prove that? Why else would you have kept it?” he asked, but Emori kept her eyes focused downward. “Emori, talk to me. You hid this in my apartment for a reason, and now you’re in jail. I know where you live, I know you can’t afford a good attorney. You have to know that you’re gonna get some shitty public defender and end up serving a good chunk of your life behind bars,” he pleaded, and that caught her attention.

“Why are you here?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him as she leaned forward.

Murphy swallowed, not sure about the answer himself. This was the first time he had visited someone behind bars since the last time he went to see his father. He knew that Emori was probably trouble. And normally he wouldn’t care about what happened to a stranger. But she left the phone with him… and he wasn’t going to get a night’s sleep until he figured out what was on it that would drive her to do that.

“I think I can get you help,” he finally said, but she wasn’t buying it.

“Guard!” she shouted, and the door swung open. Murphy’s eyes widened, pleading with her not to out him. But she ignored him. And next thing Murphy knew, Professor Kane had driven down to the station to get him out of this mess.

“What were you thinking?” Kane growled, crossing his arms as he glared down Murphy.

“She lives in the apartment next to me. When she got arrested for killing that Jaha kid, it just didn’t sit right with me,” Murphy tried to explain, but there was no good explanation for why he was there.

“This was over a girl?” he snapped.

“God, just fire me, kick me out of your class. I don’t know why you even picked me for your firm and clearly you made the wrong decision,” Murphy snapped, throwing his hands on top of his head.

“John,” Kane said sternly, and Murphy winced at the name. It had been a long time since he let anyone call him that.

“Look, I just had a feeling she could use some help and I wanted to help her. I know it was stupid and I broke the law trying to… but it’s not like anyone else was going to help her,” he snapped, standing up so he could be at Kane’s eye level. “You don’t get it. You’re Jaha’s attorney. All your clients are rich murderers or terrorists and you and the rest of us bend over backwards to make sure they don’t go to jail. But people like Emori don’t get to have fancy lawyers. They have nothing and I’m sorry that I tried to help her!”

Murphy swallowed, wondering why Kane hadn’t fired back by now… chewing him apart for talking to him like that. Murphy knew that this wasn’t entirely about Emori… a lot of this was his own issues coming out. But he had seen enough people go to jail over the years when they were innocent… just because they couldn’t afford a good attorney.

“Tell me what you’re really thinking, Mr. Murphy,” Kane said calmly, and Murphy forced himself to take a deep breath.

“I wanted to be a lawyer so I could help people like her get a fair trial… but that’s not going to happen for Emori because she is poor.”

After a few moments of dead silence, Murphy tugged on his jacket.

“I’ll look over her case,” Kane finally said, and Murphy’s eyes flickered up to his… there was no way Kane could take on her case. Murphy knew that. Jaha would fire him for that. But he could tell Kane wasn’t lying. “If I think there’s a chance I could help her, I’ll take it on. But if you ever pull anything like this again, you’re done, understood?”

Murphy nodded frantically, before following Kane out into the parking lot.

The next day in court, Cole McAdams was on the stand. Murphy was sitting in between Bellamy and Clarke, since Bellamy insisted Murphy took the spot next to Clarke… Murphy was trying to figure out what the hell was going on in the case. He really hadn’t stayed up on what they were doing here, since he had been off trying to find a way to talk to Emori.

“I thought Raven couldn’t find him,” Murphy whispered, leaning over to Bellamy.

“She couldn’t. One of Roan’s contacts did,” he explained with a huff, and Murphy rolled his eyes.

“Which is why I wasn’t surprised when Alie came up with the idea to plant that bomb,” McAdams announced, and Clarke’s head jerked up.

“Motherfucker,” she mumbled, as Kane started objecting.

“What just happened? I thought he told Kane that Alie was just following his orders,” Bellamy whispered, leaning over to look at Clarke. Clarke was shaking her head profusely, and Echo jogged up from the back to hand Roan a notepad.

“I think he got offered a deal,” Clarke muttered, clenching her jaw as she glanced over at the prosecution.

Murphy glanced over his shoulder at Monty and Raven… whose exhausted faces summed it all up. None of them were getting sleep tonight.

 

_Clarke_

 

As soon as he walked in the door, Clarke jumped up from the bench to walk in step with him.

“Hi, I’m so sorry to bother you,” Clarke started, following him up the stairs. “You were the attorney for the Cole McAdams case years back, right?”

“I’m sorry, have we met?” he asked, furrowing his brows at her.

“No. I’m a law student at Arkadian College. I’m working on a research paper, and I was hoping you would let me take a look at some of your files from the case,” she explained, but he didn’t slow down… and Clarke was cursing herself for not wearing more sensible shoes. “Five minutes of your time could really save my life.”

“I’m sorry but—”

“My name is Clarke Griffin,” she introduced herself quickly, hating that she had to resort to dropping her name like that… but recognition swept across his face.

“Jake’s daughter? Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re old enough to be in law school,” he said, his face lighting up as he talked to her.

“I know. It’s my first year. And I’m loving it,” she said with the biggest grin she could muster. “It’s just so rewarding. And when I saw an opportunity to focus my research paper on one of your cases, I couldn’t help myself. I know how much my dad respected your work.”

It was almost too easy after that to get her hands on the files. It’s amazing what sucking up can do for a person.

“Guys, come help me with these boxes,” Clarke groaned, before dropping one of them in the living room. “Where the fuck is everyone?” she asked, and Bellamy stood up, rolling his eyes.

“Raven is probably screwing her way to answers, Monty is following up on a lead, and I haven’t seen Murphy in an hour,” he muttered, brushing past her. “How the fuck did you get all these files?”

“There are perks to being an entitled princess, haven’t you heard?” she joked, before picking up another box.

At around two in the morning, she and Bellamy were both on their third cup of coffee for the night. Clarke tugged off her sweater, before throwing her hair on top of her head. “Hey, are you done with the 2004 prison logs?” she asked, and Bellamy basically tossed the packet of papers at her. She glanced up, seeing that he didn’t even bother to look up at her before flinging it to her.

“Bellamy!” Marcus shouted, and Clarke swears Bellamy practically ran out of the room toward his office. She let out a huff, before going back over the logs. She spread them out on the rug, lying down on her stomach to get more comfortable. She could hear Raven storming back in… but if she had found something, she would have shouted about it the second she came barreling in the door.

“He’s talking to Bellamy right now,” Clarke explained before Raven could even ask.

“Did Monty—”

“Nope,” Clarke interrupted before Raven got her hopes up any more than she already did.

“Well, good news is that your boobs look really great today,” Raven joked, and Clarke let out an unexpected giggle. She glanced down, before shrugging. They didn’t look too bad.

“Do you have good news?” Bellamy groaned as he stepped out of Kane’s office.

“Only that Clarke’s boobs look good tonight,” Raven shrugged, and Clarke started giggling again.

“I don’t… what? Why are you telling me this?” Bellamy stuttered out, turning back to head to the couch, and Raven started cackling in response. Clarke started shaking her head as she got her own laughter under control. Roan jogged down the stairs, and Clarke glanced over her shoulder as he approached them.

“Hey, has anyone seen the transcripts from—” Roan started.

“Bellamy had them last,” Clarke interrupted, before glancing back down at the logs. Something stood out to her. “Wait, can someone grab the bio summary of Alie?” she said, and Bellamy flung another packet across the room, smacking Clarke in the face with it. “Asshole,” she muttered, before flipping it over. And there it was… Alie’s mother’s maiden’s name… the same name that kept making phone calls to Cole McAdams in prison. “Bellamy, can I see the most recent log?”

“I’m looking over it right now, princess,” he snapped, and Clarke pushed herself up with a groan. “No, you stay over there on your side of the room,” he mumbled, not even looking up at her.

She ran over to him, sitting on the armrest of the couch and looking over his shoulder.

“Clarke, you are invading my personal space,” Bellamy snapped, and Clarke hit his shoulder before leaning closer to see who the repeat caller at the bottom of the logs.

“You two look cozy,” Raven teased as she strolled back in, holding a cup of coffee. Clarke glanced down, realizing that she was practically on top of Bellamy right now. So, she grabbed the packet out his hands before pushing away from him.

“We have a problem,” Clarke said, jumping up to rush into Kane’s office.

“Somebody better be dead or you solved the case,” Kane grumbled, and Clarke heard Raven and Bellamy right behind her.

“You need to get a hold of Alie’s husband… make sure she’s still here,” Clarke said, slamming the log down on Kane’s office. “That’s her mother’s maiden name. But her mother has been dead since before the bombing. Becca’s been in contact with him this whole time.”

Kane let out a groan, before dialing the phone. “Echo, go find Becca, now!” he shouted, and Clarke glanced back at Bellamy nervously.

Clarke, Bellamy, and Raven were all fast asleep on the couch when Echo stormed back into the house with the news that Becca ran. Monty rushed in just minutes later with a discovery that would have thrown out Cole McAdams’ testimony, and Clarke didn’t have the heart to tell him that all this work was for nothing.

“What happens now?” Murphy asked, and Roan leaned against the doorframe with a sigh.

“Echo is trying to hunt her down. But if she can’t find her in the next few hours, the trial is going to go on without her… and it won’t be pretty. If the FBI ever finds her, she’ll probably spend the rest of her life behind bars,” he explained with a frustrated expression on his face.

They all went to court… praying that somehow Echo found her. But she didn’t. Becca… or Alie… was gone. She had a new name, and everything they did in the past few days was for nothing.

Clarke decided not to bother going to her afternoon class… it’s not like she’d be able to stay awake for it anyway. She headed home, hopped in the shower, and crawled into her bed.

She heard her front door open half an hour later, and Roan stumbled into her bedroom.

“Breaking and entering is punishable by law,” Clarke mumbled, dropping her head back down on her pillow.

“I have bad news,” Roan sighed, and Clarke rolled over onto her side.

“Worse news than the fact that I’ve lost a good amount of sleep over a client who decided to run?” Clarke murmured, and then she heard Roan sit down on the bed. She glanced up, furrowing her brows at him. “Getting comfortable?” she teased.

“Marcus is taking that Emori girl on as a client,” he said, turning to look at Clarke with a concerned look on his face.

“The girl they arrested for Wells’ murder?” Clarke snapped, sitting upright as Roan pulled his shoes off.

“He doesn’t think she did it,” Roan explained.

“I don’t either,” Clarke reminded, but she knew why Roan was concerned. Even though Clarke and Thelonious didn’t do it, Emori going free might not be in their best interest. Clarke didn’t have nearly as many skeletons in her closet, but they both had a lot at risk if suspicion ever turned on either of them.

“I’m just warning you. He may pull you off this case, since you have a personal connection. And I know you hate it when I don’t warn you about these things, Clarke,” he explained, and Clarke leaned back down on her pillow.

“Did you just come over here to tell me that or did you also want to cuddle?” she teased, and Roan scoffed… but that didn’t stop him from crawling into bed next to her.

“I’m sleep deprived too,” he muttered, and Clarke rolled away from him in a giggle. Then, she felt him press into her back, and his hand rested on her hip.

“Go to sleep then,” she whispered, and Roan pressed a kiss to her cheek.

 

**Two and a Half Months Later**

 

_Luna_

 

It was four in the morning when she heard the pounding on the door. Luna threw a sweatshirt over her head so it wouldn’t be obvious that she didn’t have a bra on, before going to her front door. Through the eyehole, she could see Raven, pacing back and forth in the hallway. Luna swallowed, since she hadn’t spoken to Raven after their nasty fight a while back.

“Raven, what are you doing here?” Luna asked as she opened the door, and Raven erupted into a sob as she leaned against the wall of the hallway. “Raven? What’s going on?”

“I screwed up, Luna,” she whispered, shaking her head frantically. “I did something really bad. I didn’t know where to go.”

Luna crossed over to her, but Raven fell to the floor, burying her face into her knees as she hugged them tightly. Luna had never seen Raven like this. She looked like she might be drunk or on something… she was jittery and nervous… and a mess. Raven was never a mess.

“Did something happen?” Luna asked calmly, crouching down in front of Raven. She was scared to touch her, scared that it would startle her. It was clear Raven was having a panic attack.

“I’m not a good person, Luna,” she whispered, not looking up at her. “I did something.”

“What did you do?”

“I can’t tell you,” Raven said seriously, glancing up at her. “Fuck, what am I doing here?” she said, pushing herself to her feet.

“Raven, please come inside,” Luna begged, grabbing her wrist so she couldn’t leave.

“No, I can’t stay. You can’t know what I did. I can’t tell you,” Raven said, before resting her forehead against the wall. She erupted into a louder sob, and Luna rested her hand on her back, trying to reassure her.

“Please, talk to me,” Luna whispered, and Raven pushed off the wall to look at her.

“I can’t. I can’t,” she stuttered, running her fingers through her hair aggressively. “I’ll ruin your life. That’s what I do. That’s what we all do.”

“Raven, you’re not making any sense,” Luna said, putting her hands on Raven’s shoulders. “Will you come inside, please? For me?”

“No, I’m just gonna hurt you again,” Raven said quickly, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand.

“It’ll hurt me more if you go right now,” Luna said, desperately saying whatever it took for Raven to get inside her apartment. It was clear that Raven wasn’t well, that maybe she was drunk or high… and she needed to be somewhere safe tonight. “For me, please come inside.”

And Luna couldn’t figure out what made Raven give in… but she did.


	5. Ancient History

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh I know I just said that basically every chapter is going to have smut in it... but I lied. This one does not. Sorry. But there's a lot of Bellarke moments soooo sorry not sorry.
> 
> Anyway, it's still a long chapter. I look forward to hearing thoughts and theories! Love you guys!

_Murphy_

 

As he reached the counter, he decided to grab a few things of candy… figuring it would look a lot better if he wasn’t just buying trash bags, matches, and gasoline. The gas station was crowded enough that no one paid attention to him. Once he paid, he took a glance outside. He could see Bellamy’s car far enough away. It looked like Bellamy was too busy snapping at Monty or Raven… or maybe even Clarke this time… to see what Murphy was doing, so he snuck behind one of the shelves before pulling out the burner phone Emori had given him.

“You are not supposed to be calling me,” she whispered, and Murphy rested his head on one of the shelves… just grateful to hear her voice.

“The others can’t see me. Don’t worry,” he reassured, and he could hear Emori let out a sigh. “I need you to do something for me.”

“You said not to leave the hotel room,” she reminded, and he rolled his eyes.

“You need to destroy the phone,” he whispered, bracing himself for the anger that was sure to follow.

“No! I almost died to get it. If we do that, then all of this was for nothing,” she snapped, and Murphy bit his lip.

“Emori, it’s the only thing that gives any of us motive. Without it, no jury on this earth could figure out why we would do it,” he murmured, glancing around to see if anyone was in the neighboring aisles… but luckily everyone was over by the beer.

“It’s also the only thing that could get me off the hook,” she said quickly.

“What good is escaping one murder charge if the way you do it would get you another?” he whispered, before whipping his head around in paranoia. “Just destroy it. Trust me. We’ll find another way out of it,” he said before hanging up.

He quickly made his way out of the gas station, crossing over to Bellamy’s car. He slid into the passenger’s side, apparently entering another argument.

“We could just bury him,” Raven huffed.

“The ground is frozen, dumbass,” Bellamy snapped, and Murphy threw one of the candy bars into the backseat.

“You expect me to be able to eat right now?” Monty growled.

“Give it to princess. Maybe it’ll help her get the taste of blood out of her mouth,” Murphy muttered, which immediately earned Bellamy slapping him on the arm. Murphy glanced up, seeing Bellamy’s murderous glare directed right at him. Murphy still wasn’t sure what exactly it was that Emori saw between the two of them… but Murphy was starting to see it now. “I just figured I should buy some other stuff so I looked less suspicious,” Murphy explained, looking over his shoulder to see that Clarke wasn’t even paying attention.

“Back to burying the body,” Raven started, leaning forward to tap Bellamy on the shoulder.

“We have to burn it to get rid of the DNA,” Bellamy muttered, and Raven opened her mouth again to argue.

“The smoke will be covered by the bonfire. We’re kind of lucky this happened tonight,” Murphy jumped in, and Raven’s eyes went wide with horror. “What? Aren’t we past the point of judgement by now?”

 

**Two Months Earlier**

 

_Marcus_

 

“Please tell me whoever you’re screwing this time isn’t distracting you from doing your damn job,” Marcus growled, slamming his car door behind him.

“I’ve tried everything I can think of to get it thrown out,” Roan groaned, practically jogging to keep up with him. Marcus rolled his eyes. He knew that wasn’t true. Roan always had one more favor he could pull.

“Our client was coerced into a confession. Get the tape. Find a way to get it thrown out. I don’t care how,” Marcus snapped, stopping in his tracks to glare down Roan. Marcus still didn’t know how the prosecution tricked Emori into confessing. The girl was too young to know that plea deals were never really deals, so he didn’t blame her.

“Maybe Echo would have better luck—”

“No, Echo is dealing with Jaha,” he interrupted. “This is your task. If you have to, get Griffin to call in a favor.”

“I thought you said you wanted her off this case.”

“Well, I might need her to be my new Roan since you can’t seem to do one simple task,” he muttered, turning around and walking toward the prison. He could hear Roan walking in the opposite direction, probably racking his brain to figure out how he could pull this one off without having to go running to Nia. Frankly, Marcus didn’t care if Roan had to sell his soul to get that confession thrown out at this point.

Once inside, he waited eagerly at the table… his feet tapping on the floor nervously. When Sinclair finally came in and took the seat across from him, Marcus had to take a deep breath.

“Did you come to say goodbye?” Sinclair joked, and Marcus bit his lip.

“Absolutely not,” he replied, leaning across the table with a small grin. The realization washed over Sinclair’s face at those words, and he started shaking his head slowly. “We have one more chance. You have an emergency hearing in three days.”

“If this is a joke, Marcus… it’s not funny,” Sinclair said, running his fingers through his hair as he thought over these words.

“I wouldn’t joke about this,” Marcus said seriously. Sinclair’s case was one that had been haunting him for years. There was never enough hard evidence to convict him. And he _knew_ Sinclair wasn’t a violent man. Every time they rejected the appeal, a part of Marcus died a little. They had one last chance. And Marcus was going to get his friend out of here.

 

_Echo_

 

“I just don’t understand why he would think it’s a good idea to take on that murderer’s case!” Jaha snapped, and Echo pulled the door closed behind her. The last thing she needed were for any of the kids to get distracted from a death row case.

“He reviewed the case just like he always does, and believes she is innocent. I would think that you would want to make sure that Wells’ murderer went behind bars,” Echo retorted, and that shut him up very quickly.

“But,” he stuttered out, leaning against the wall, “why does he think she’s innocent?”

“I’m not allowed to talk to you about an ongoing case. You know that,” Echo sighed, and Jaha pressed his lips together.

“But this is a case that affects me,” he groaned, and Echo bit her lip. She wanted to remind him that he wasn’t their only client, or that she had enough dirt on him to earn him about three life sentences… but she kept her mouth shut. Thankfully, Marcus chose this moment to show up, and Echo shot him a warning look.

“This is really not a good time Thelonious,” Marcus sighed, and Echo took this as her cue to leave. She paced into the living room, seeing Roan on the phone in the kitchen as she walked past.

“It was at that moment that I saw Mr. Sinclair come running out of her apartment,” Raven read off from the court transcripts, and Echo walked around the kids to grab her purse from behind the couch. “He had a panicked look on his face, like he just murdered someone.”

“Objection, Your Honor. Speculation,” Bellamy muttered, and Echo heard all of them flip the pages at once. She sat down in the corner of the room, pulling her laptop out of her bag.

“Murphy, that’s your line,” Clarke sighed.

“Right, sorry. Uh, sustained, said Judge Green,” Murphy mumbled, and Echo’s head shot up. How the hell did she miss this before?

“Wait, Monty are you related to Hannah Green?” Bellamy asked, and Echo’s mind was already flashing back to the file she made for each of them. How had she and Marcus missed that Monty’s mother was the judge on this case?

“Yeah, that’s my mom,” Monty mumbled.

“Marcus!” Echo shouted, and he came running out of his office. “Did you know that Judge Green was the judge from the original trial?” Kane’s eyes widened, before he gestured for Monty to follow him back into his office.

“Marcus, you and I were having a discussion,” Jaha said arrogantly as he walked out of the office.

“Thelonious, I have a death row hearing. I’ll deal with you after,” he growled, before patting Monty on the back, directing him into his office. His door slammed shut behind him, and Echo heard Roan groan in the other room.

“Hey, Clarke, can I talk to you for a second?” Jaha asked, stepping into the living room. Clarke’s eyes shot up to meet Echo’s, and Echo shook her head.

“Actually, every moment here counts. This isn’t a good time,” Clarke replied, before glancing back down at the court transcript. Bellamy, Murphy, and Raven all exchanged worried looks, before burying their faces back into the transcript.

“Thelonious, we will reach out to you at a less chaotic time,” Echo explained, and his jaw twitched in response.

“Can you please just tell us the specific circumstances you witnessed?” Clarke asked, reading off the transcript again. Echo let out a sigh of relief as Jaha stalked toward the front door.

The kids continued reading off the transcript until Marcus’ office door reopened. Roan stumbled back in from the kitchen, looking flustered at best. Monty quickly walked in and gathered his things, looking horribly confused about what Echo could only imagine Marcus vaguely explained. It was no secret that this case seemed fishy… and his mother might just have a good answer for why that was.

“Alright, Mr. Green has his assignment. I also would like someone to go talk to the original attorney and get all his files,” Marcus announced, narrowing his eyes at the kids. “Reyes and Murphy,” he decided, and the two of them immediately started packing up their things. “And someone needs to talk to the original prosecutor. He abandoned the case half-way through the trial, and there has to be a good reason why.”

“Oh, I can go,” Roan volunteered, already putting his phone in his pocket.

“No, you have something else you need to be working on. Griffin and Blake will go,” Marcus snapped, raising an eyebrow at Roan. Echo ducked her head back into her laptop, feeling like she just walked in on her brother getting yelled at by Dad.

Once the kids all cleared out of the house, and Marcus slunk back in his office, Roan tiptoed back into the living room.

“I’m not figuring it out for you,” Echo mumbled, not even looking up from her laptop.

“Why is this my task?” Roan whispered, bracing his hand on the doorframe.

“Because I wouldn’t go about it legally,” she teased, and Roan let out a huff. Then again, she had a feeling Roan wasn’t going to approach this legally either.

 

_Clarke_

 

Clarke tossed another French fry into her mouth, and couldn’t help but moan. She hadn’t eaten breakfast that morning… and fuck, McDonald’s French fries were everything she needed.

“You have got to stop doing that,” Bellamy mumbled, before taking another bite out of his burger.

“Okay, I haven’t eaten all day, asshole,” Clarke muttered, shaking her head as she approached another red light.

“Not an excuse for moaning like a porn star every time you put something in your mouth,” he retorted, and Clarke let out a snort.

“Aww, am I getting you all hot and bothered?” she teased, turning to look at his red face. She rolled her eyes. She knew that wasn’t what he meant, but it was still kind of funny.

“Sorry to break your heart, princess,” he mumbled, and Clarke narrowed her eyes at him. “What? That nickname still pissing you off?”

“No, I’m mad that you guys all found out that Monty had the same kind of leg up getting into Arkadian and none of you are giving him the same level of shit you give me,” she snapped, and Bellamy burst out laughing, throwing his head back. “Stop. It’s not cool. Why are you laughing?”

“Would you feel better if I start calling Monty ‘princess’ too?” he mocked her, and Clarke let out a huff. That wasn’t her point at all. The light turned green, and she slammed on her accelerator. The sooner they got this over with, the sooner she could get this asshole out of her damn car. “I will start calling him that if it wipes that annoying scowl off your face.”

“I just think it’s interesting that none of you said anything about it, yet none of you have a problem doing it to me,” she muttered, and Bellamy let out a groan.

“What are you saying, princess?” he teased, and Clarke hit him in the chest.

“That you’re low key sexist,” she snapped, and Bellamy burst out laughing. “No, if I was a man, none of you would be calling me an entitled princess. Exhibit motherfucking A: Monty Green,” she spat.

“But Monty doesn’t act like it. You do,” he replied, still laughing as he spoke. Clarke reached over and grabbed a handful of his fries and shoved them into her mouth. “What the hell?”

“Asshole tax,” she mumbled, her mouth still full of fries.

“Okay, you wanna know the real difference between you and Monty?” he asked, as Clarke pulled up to another red light. “I actually like Monty.”

“Son of a bitch,” Clarke muttered, before leaning over to grab his fries again.

“Clarke,” Bellamy snapped, jerking them away from her, but Clarke already had a handful. Bellamy grabbed her hand, trying to pull it away from her mouth before she could eat them all, but she leaned over even more and shoved the last of them into her mouth.

“Suck it,” Clarke mumbled as she sat back in her seat, wiping the French fry salt off her mouth.

“Did you really just do that?” Bellamy asked, laughing as he threw his head back.

“Every time you’re an asshole to me, I’m going to steal something from you. Maybe it’ll be your fries, maybe it’ll be a sheet of paper… who knows. But one day,” Clarke said seriously, wagging her finger at his laughing face, “you will wake up and realize that even though you just bought new notecards or highlighters, there never seems to be any in your bag. And you will know that it was me. And you could have prevented it by just being nice to me.”

Bellamy couldn’t stop laughing, and the light finally turned green. 

When they got into the prosecutor’s office, Clarke got a strange vibe from the guy. Like he was lying.

“Honestly, it was just a really hard time for me personally,” he explained to Bellamy, as Clarke looked into his background on her phone. The guy hardly paid attention to her, since Bellamy was more his type anyway… not that Bellamy seemed to notice that he was hitting on him… which Clarke could not wait to tease him about on the way back to Kane’s house.

“So you just decided to walk away?” Bellamy asked skeptically.

“I needed a chance to relax, you know. I had been working case after case that month, and I needed a break from law.” Clarke smirked, realizing that was the lie she had been waiting for.

“How relaxing were the depos you took in the state’s case against the maintenance workers’ union the very next day?” Clarke asked, leaning back in her seat and crossing her legs. She bit the inside of her mouth to keep from smirking, but she could see Bellamy’s jaw drop slightly out of the corner of her eye.

The original prosecutor quickly got up from his desk to shut his door, and Clarke just raised her eyebrows at him.

“Look, I can’t admit to any of this on the record,” he sighed, and Clarke nodded along. “There were whispers about that case… that one of the witnesses might have committed perjury. I had the judge look into it, but nothing came of it.”

“Did you get reassigned by the DA’s office?” Bellamy asked, crossing his arms.

“Yeah,” he huffed, running his fingers through his hair. “I don’t think she ever did anything about the perjured statement.”

“Would you say there seemed to be pressure to convict?” Clarke asked, cocking her head to the side. She could see Bellamy tense up beside her, probably worried that she was overstepping. But they had the upper hand here. The two of them just witnessed a former federal prosecutor admit to knowledge of perjured testimony. He wasn’t going to freak out on them.

“Officially, no…” he trailed off, and Clarke nodded, before standing up.

“Thank you for your time,” she replied, before crossing over to the door. Bellamy followed after her, shaking his head rapidly.

As soon as they were out the front door, he leaned down to whisper, “You don’t think that Monty’s mom had a part of that, do you?”

“She’s a respected federal judge. So, I wouldn’t be surprised,” Clarke huffed, fishing her keys out of her purse. She glanced up at Bellamy, who was still shaking his head, biting down on his lip. “Look, I hope she didn’t, for Monty’s sake. Trust me, it sucks when you find out about the shitty stuff your family does.”

“And how do you know that, princess?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

_Because not one person in my family got to where they are by being good citizens_ , she wanted to say, but knew she had to keep her damn mouth shut.

“Because everyone does bad things. It’s the only consistent lesson we’ve gotten from Kane,” she mumbled, before climbing into her car.

 

_Raven_

“Like the nerve of that guy. That’s why so many fucking people end up with sentences for crimes they don’t even commit,” Murphy grumbled, picking up another box from Raven’s trunk.

“Dude, let it go. He was a bad attorney and was jaded,” Raven sighed, although she had to admit the defense attorney was the worst. He might as well have gone into the case screaming that Sinclair did it with how little faith he had in his client.

“He had a fucking alibi and that guy just let the prosecution throw it out,” Murphy snapped, dropping a box loudly on the ground.

“His alibi had a drug habit. The lawyer didn’t know any better. He thought that associating Sinclair with him would do more damage than good with the jury,” Raven explained, even though she and Murphy had this same argument the entire drive back.

“Well, because that lawyer didn’t know better, Sinclair has been just sitting in prison and might die via lethal injection in two weeks,” Murphy muttered, and Raven stood up straighter, wondering why this was the case to make Murphy snap.

“Murphy, are you okay?” Raven asked, and Murphy rolled his eyes before hauling another box toward the house. She grabbed a box and followed after him.

“Yeah, if you can, ask her if she knows anything about perjured testimony from the case. We need to narrow down who it is,” she heard Echo say over the phone, and Raven furrowed her brows, glancing over at Bellamy who looked really smug. Damnit. They found something juicy and the trophy was as good as gone now.

“Clarke!” she heard Marcus shout, and Clarke ran across the living room to him. “Take Bellamy to go check on the eyewitness. See what other things she noticed other than Sinclair,” he sighed, and Clarke gestured for Bellamy to get up. Raven paced into the living room, seeing Roan propped up against the wall, looking about as sleep deprived as Raven felt.

She glanced over his shoulder, seeing what looked like Emori’s taped confession on his laptop. She bit her lip before walking away. That was a disaster for another day.

“There are more boxes, Raven,” Murphy snapped, and Raven let out a groan as she stomped back to the front door.

“You ran a stop sign, Clarke! I’m driving,” Bellamy growled, and Raven couldn’t help but snort.

“Pretty sure Kane paired them up today because things were getting too chummy between them,” Murphy joked and Raven chuckled as she moved toward her trunk.

“No, we’re taking my car so you can clean up the fries that fell on the passenger side,” Clarke snapped, and Raven glanced over her shoulder, seeing Bellamy jog after her toward Clarke’s car.

“My money is always on Griffin,” Raven muttered.

“You made that mess when you stole my fries, princess!” Bellamy shouted.

“Well, I’m just an entitled princess who is used to getting what she wants. So, get in my fucking car, Bellamy, and pick up the damn fries!” Clarke snapped, before slamming her door shut.

“And now he’s gonna pretend for a second that he’s not going to get in,” Murphy whispered, leaning against the back of Raven’s car with a smirk.

“And here comes the jaw clench,” Raven joked, and then Bellamy glanced up at them with a furious expression on his face.

“Don’t you two have work to do?” Bellamy shouted.

“Don’t you have fries to clean up?” Raven shouted back, and Bellamy threw his head back.

“Your princess is waiting, Blake,” Murphy teased, and Bellamy begrudgingly opened the door, and they could hear the faint sound of Clarke snapping at him about taking too long.

“Which one of them do you think is gonna be our future client when the other one dies under mysterious circumstances?” Raven asked, and Murphy started chuckling. Then, her phone started ringing, and Murphy turned around to pick up another box.

Raven let out a sigh, seeing that it was Luna.

“Hey, I’m sorry I didn’t text you back,” Raven said, wincing in anticipation.

“That’s the least of my concerns. Where were you last night?”

Raven clenched her eyes shut, remembering that she passed out on her couch… forgetting that they had plans. “I’m so sorry. I was so tired after the last case, and I just forgot. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

“God, stop,” Luna muttered, and Raven could hear someone else talking in the background. She bit her lip, pacing away from her car.

“No really, I will. I promise.”

“You said that last time. What case are you on now?”

“A death row case,” Raven said, scrunching her face up. She knew it didn’t look good for her. Raven was always busy, constantly blowing Luna off. And it didn’t help that the times she did show up where she was supposed to be while on a case was usually because she needed Luna’s help.

“I want you to come over to my apartment tonight,” she said, and Raven didn’t want to have this fight again.

“Luna, it’s a death row case. The guy is set to die in two weeks. I can’t spare a moment. I’m constantly looking over my shoulder thinking that Kane is going to yell at me for taking this call.”

“Then, I’ll leave you alone then,” Luna muttered, and before Raven could say anything else, she hung up.

“Girlfriend trouble?” Murphy asked as he brushed past her to get a box.

“I don’t do girlfriends,” Raven replied, and Murphy raised an eyebrow at her.

“How long have you two been not girlfriends?” he asked, and Raven bit the inside of her mouth.

“You don’t understand. It’s complicated,” she muttered, turning around to pick up a box. He might have had some witty retort, but she missed it on her way back into the house.

 

_Monty_

 

It was the middle of the night by the time he got back to Kane’s house. He quietly walked into the house, seeing Clarke asleep on Raven’s lap on the couch. Murphy was still up, going through one of the dozens of boxes that now littered the living room floor.

“So, is your mom the reason why an innocent guy is on death row?” Murphy mumbled, not even looking up at Monty.

“Shut the fuck up,” Monty snapped, and Raven’s head jerked up sleepily. Bellamy walked in, carrying two cups of coffee.

“How was your little road trip, princess?” Bellamy asked him, and Monty narrowed his eyes at him.

“Did you just call me ‘princess?’” he asked, too damn tired to make sense of this.

“Trying to prove to I’m not sexist,” Bellamy shrugged, before plopping down on the floor across from Murphy.

“That doesn’t explain anything,” Monty mumbled, throwing his head back. He decided not to push it… especially since it was the time of night where no amount of explaining would help him. So, he stumbled toward Kane’s office, before shutting the door behind him.

“I take it that it did not go well,” Kane sighed, and Monty plopped down in the chair and glared at him. “You didn’t find anything?”

“No, I found everything,” Monty sighed.

“Well?”

“I have conditions,” Monty negotiated, and he could see Kane’s lips quirk up in a smile.

“Name your price, Mr. Green,” he smirked.

“My mom stays out of what I’m about to tell you,” he sighed, ignoring the raising of Kane’s eyebrows. He didn’t want to explain to Professor Kane that his mother had ignored the evidence of perjury in exchange for an endorsement.

“And?” he asked, accepting the first request.

“I get the trophy,” Monty said, raising an eyebrow. After all, he just spent his day in a screaming match with his mother and now needs to find somewhere else to spend his Christmas this year. Plus, he had the horrific realization that his mother traded a death sentence for her career advancement. His day was hell, and he had done more than enough to earn it.

“Done. What do you have?”

“State Senator Carl Emerson,” Monty said with a smirk, and Kane’s eyes widened with interest. “He was the person who paid for the perjured testimony. For some reason, he needed Sinclair to go down for the murder.”

Kane jumped up from his seat, and marched around to his office door. “Echo, get me everything you have on Carl Emerson,” he shouted as he opened the door, and Monty made his way into the living room. “The rest of you, we need to find a connection to Senator Carl Emerson and one of the witnesses from the original trial. Prove that I wasn’t wrong to hire you.”

Monty plopped down, taking one of the boxes that hadn’t been gone through yet. As minutes turned to hours, all five of them were heavily caffeinated and a little bit delirious.

“Doesn’t princess just know people like Carl Emerson?” Murphy mumbled, before handing Monty the tax packet.

“How the fuck would I know a senator? I never leave this house,” Clarke muttered, grabbing a highlighter right out of Bellamy’s hand before marking through something.

“I know Emerson. Trust me, knowing him does not help us,” Roan mumbled, before dropping a large stack of papers on the coffee table, earning a loud groan from Bellamy.

“Raven, isn’t this one of those times that you magically show up with a solution?” Monty grumbled.

“She can’t just bang her way to answers every time,” Bellamy mumbled, before Clarke ripped the coffee mug right out of his hands. “What the fuck?”

“Asshole tax,” Clarke muttered before taking a huge gulp.

“Thank you,” Raven snapped, as she threw her hair up into a ponytail.

“The asshole tax only applies when I’m mean to you, princess,” Bellamy mumbled, and Clarke took another large gulp, glaring at him as she did.

“Do you think it’s possible that Emerson was having an affair with one of the witnesses? He’s straight, right?” Monty asked Murphy, who narrowed his eyes in confusion.

“I think so. But none of the witnesses were the kind of women you’d cheat on your wife with, you know?” Murphy sighed.

“You’re getting me another cup,” Bellamy snapped, but Monty turned away from them… not in the mood for another fight from Bellamy and Clarke tonight.

“Maybe it’s one of the male witnesses. A man who was completely straight would never have the taste to buy this tie,” Raven said, gesturing to one of the photos they had printed out. Monty had to admit it was a good-looking tie.

“Apologize to Raven and maybe I’ll get you one too,” Clarke murmured as she stood up. Then, Monty heard the sound of her falling.

“Bellamy, did you just purposefully trip Clarke?” Murphy snapped, standing up. Monty glanced around the boxes where Clarke had fallen.

“Oh, did Clarke fall?” Bellamy asked, not even looking up.

“What is going on in here?” Echo asked, running in with a confused look on her face.

“Bellamy just tripped Clarke, and Clarke isn’t getting up… he might have also killed her,” Murphy explained, but Monty looked over at Clarke, she was holding a piece of paper, furrowing her brows at it.

“Princess is fine,” Bellamy mumbled, flipping a page.

“Bellamy, you fucking idiot,” Clarke snapped as she sat up. Then, she slammed the piece of paper right in his face.

“What the fuck am I looking at?” Bellamy groaned, pulling the paper back to look at it. Monty climbed onto the couch behind him, looking over his shoulder at it… but Monty didn’t notice anything special about it.

“This was in your stack and you didn’t notice the logo?” she growled, and Bellamy cocked his head in confusion. “That’s a document from Emerson’s real-estate company. Recognize the logo from the star witness that we visited? She’s living in one of his buildings!”

“Marcus!” Echo shouted, and Bellamy threw his hands up in frustration.

“I bet he threatened to evict her if she didn’t testify. Or bribed her with waiving rent money,” Raven said excitedly, and Monty let out a sigh of relief. They found a way to prove Sinclair’s innocence that didn’t involve bringing in Hannah Green.

 

_Bellamy_

 

Of course, Clarke chose to sit right next to him at the hearing. It wasn’t enough that he spent almost the entirety of the last three days stuck with her. No, he had to sit right next to her.

Kane started off by bringing the witness onto the stand, verifying everything they figured out the night before. Emerson was raising rent prices on all his buildings to get rid of his poorer tenants. His greatest obstacle? The woman that Sinclair was convicted of murdering. Sinclair was the perfect person to frame, and all Emerson had to do was drop one of his eviction suits to get a witness to perjure herself.

He glanced over at Clarke, who was nervously pressing the creases out of her skirt as she watched Kane examine the witness.

“He’s gonna get the conviction overturned,” Bellamy whispered.

“No thanks to you,” Clarke murmured, not even looking at him.

“Excuse me?”

“You’ve spent this entire case being a total ass to me. So much so that you weren’t paying enough attention when we went to talk to the eyewitness.”

“I paid attention,” Bellamy growled right into her ear, and she let out a huff.

“Then, how do you explain not noticing the logo that was literally everywhere in that building?” she snapped back, narrowing her blue eyes at him. Bellamy swallowed, turning away from her to focus on the trial. He knew she had a point. He should have caught that. But he was so rattled after spending too much time with her. They fought about her nickname, about how she thought he was unfairly categorizing her as a privileged princess, about how she purposefully asked Bellamy trick questions so she could show him up, about basic case information… about everything. And even as she was bitching him out over one stupid thing he said, there was a tiny voice in the back of his head that just had to point out that she was kind of hot when she was pissed… and it unnerved him.

She was under his skin, and it was causing him to lose his mind. Suddenly, every little spat they had became that much more important for him to win. Because when she won, he had to admit to himself that she was smart or clever or that she was anything other than the annoying princess he keeps trying to tell himself she is. He really wanted to keep hating her. If he could find a way to keep hating her, if he could keep fighting with her… then maybe he could stop noticing the little glances she exchanged with Roan or stop randomly noticing how attractive she is.

It didn’t help that he kept having flashes to when he walked in on her with Roan… or that even after hooking up with two different people, his brain kept going back to that image. And the girl in the image isn’t just some girl that he’ll never see again. No, it’s the girl who moans a little too loudly when she eats fries or who constantly has a pen in between her teeth… the girl who is regularly tugging off layers on late nights at Kane’s house, who has no problem leaning over Bellamy to grab something while only wearing a low-cut tank top.

Bellamy tried his best to pay attention to Kane’s closing statements. After all, the five of them were lucky that they got to see such a talented lawyer in action on a regular basis. But he was too tired to focus, and his exhausted brain kept dragging itself back to the princess sitting next to him.

What he’s been doing with her… it’s no different than pulling pigtails on a playground. And he knew that. He was a grown adult… and he needed to find a way to get past whatever ridiculous thoughts were in his brain.

“I’m sorry,” Bellamy whispered into her ear, and Clarke furrowed her brows in confusion. “For being a dick to you… all the time,” he stuttered out, before leaning away from her.

“I’m sorry, can you repeat that?” Clarke whispered, and Bellamy glanced back at her to see a smug grin on her face. He rolled his eyes.

“That’ll be the only apology you get out of me,” he replied, sinking back into his seat.

“You tripped me last night,” she reminded.

“Ancient history,” he blew it off, and he could see her start to get angry again.

“It was literally just hours ago. I have a bruise,” Clarke snapped, and Bellamy gestured with his finger for her to stay quiet, which earned him an elbow to the stomach… and he couldn’t help but smirk.

A while after the original conviction was vacated, Bellamy was sitting on the steps next to Echo. It was emotional… seeing Sinclair hug and kiss his family after learning that his death sentence was gone. Today was the first time Bellamy felt like they actually did something good for someone. And it felt pretty damn great.

“Please tell me we don’t have another case right away. I need some sleep,” Bellamy groaned, remembering that it was only Thursday. He still had another day of hell to get through before he could sleep for an entire weekend straight.

“You kids will get a little break before we start ramping up on Emori’s case, if that’s what you’re asking,” Echo sighed.

“Wait, don’t we need to figure out how to get the confession thrown out?” Bellamy asked, remembering that this was the primary concern before this emergency hearing got thrown on them.

“No, Roan took care of it,” Echo replied with a hint of bitterness to her voice.

“How?” Bellamy asked, glancing over at Roan who was talking with Clarke and Monty down on the sidewalk.

“Beats me. He won’t tell me how… which probably means he called in a favor with his mom or wife,” Echo muttered, and Bellamy jerked his head in her direction.

“Roan isn’t married,” he said… because there was no way Roan was married. He glanced back at Roan, and there was no wedding ring on his finger. Plus, he’s sleeping with Clarke and it’s not like Clarke would just have an affair with a married man. She wasn’t the type to do that.

“Oh, yeah he is. Ontari is a piece of work, trust me,” Echo smirked, but Bellamy shook his head. There was something he wasn’t getting here.

“How do I not know that?” Bellamy asked, waiting for Echo to say this was some kind of joke.

“He doesn’t like to advertise it. Not really something he’s happy about. But, you know how families like those are…”

Bellamy jerked his head back to look at Roan, who was laughing at something Clarke just said. Bellamy was pretty sure that Clarke had no idea that he was married… which meant that someone had to tell her.

 

**Two Months Later**

 

_Roan_

 

He shot Echo a quick text that he was on his way to pick her up, before rolling out of bed to throw on a shirt. That’s when he heard the knocking on his door. He glanced back at his alarm clock… realizing it was way too late for anyone to be coming by.

It turned out to be Clarke… and Roan was surprised to say the least.

“Clarke, I tried to tell you this earlier but—”

“I’m not here to talk,” she interrupted, pushing past him to put her purse down on his coffee table. He narrowed his eyes at her… trying to figure out what was going on with her. He sensed it when he was on the phone with her earlier, and he was seeing it now. Something was off. Clarke was jittery, distant… and not the kind of distant that Roan had been getting used to since she found out about Ontari. “Earlier, you said you would do whatever it took for me to forgive you. You mean that, right?” she asked, glancing up at him, and Roan stepped toward her. She flinched when he touched her arm, and he immediately stepped back. Something was very wrong here.

“Of course. Anything,” he reminded her, but his eyes dropped to her scarf. He remembered seeing her wearing it in the photos she and the other kids posted from the bonfire, recognizing it from somewhere.

“I did something stupid tonight, and I need you to fix it for me, okay?” she asked, and Roan realized that was Bellamy’s scarf. He swallowed, thinking back to all those times he caught Bellamy’s eyes lingering a little too long on Clarke… there was no way… Clarke couldn’t stand him…

“What did you do?”

“You don’t get to ask questions,” she snapped, and Roan cocked his head in confusion. “So, I got so caught up in the stuff with my mom and this job and—” she cut herself off, but Roan knew that he was likely on that list. “I just… I thought I was going to fail Kane’s exam and I freaked out and stole the trophy that Monty turned in before Kane got to see it.” Roan furrowed his eyebrows at her… because this didn’t sound like Clarke at all. She was calm, careful… calculating. “It was stupid and maybe I was just too sleep deprived to think better of it. But I don’t want Kane to know. So I need you to get it back in the house for me,” she huffed, pulling the trophy out of her purse.

“Okay…” he said, picking it up from her hands. She grabbed her bag, before moving toward the door. “Clarke, where are you going?” he snapped, pacing after her.

“I’ve got people waiting for me,” she muttered, and his jaw twitched at those words.

“Who?” he asked, and her eyes flickered up to his, with the rage he was all too familiar with.

“Does it matter? It’s not like I’m married or something,” she spat, before storming out of his apartment, slamming the door on her way out. Roan rushed over to his window, looking down at the parking lot. Clarke’s car wasn’t there. But there was a car he recognized… Bellamy’s.

He was seething with anger the entire time he drove to pick up Echo. And of course, Echo wasn’t sympathetic. Not that he blamed her. Roan knew he fucked up. And while he knew eventually Clarke would understand, he should have expected things to get this bad with her. Somehow along the way he just started assuming that just because Clarke was used to the kind of arrangements that Roan was forced into with Ontari doesn’t mean that Clarke would ever be okay with it… even if Roan was just waiting for her to sign the damn divorce papers.

He tried to push Clarke out of his thoughts as he walked into Marcus’ house. Marcus was pacing in the living room, looking about as wound up as Roan expected. While Marcus was busy talking about Jaha’s things, Roan snuck the trophy back onto the shelf.

Marcus gestured for Roan to follow him into the kitchen, and Roan couldn’t help but get the feeling that something was off inside the house. He ignored those feelings, though. Blaming it on Marcus’ contagious paranoia about Jaha’s disappearance.

“You know, in case something happens to him, you’ll need to get your alibi in order,” Echo sighed, walking into the kitchen. Roan ran his fingers through his hair, trying to figure out why Echo was acting like Jaha was dead.

“He ran. I don’t need an alibi,” Marcus snapped, and Roan nodded along. If Marcus had anything to do with whatever Echo was accusing him of, he’d be bending over backwards to build up an alibi. Roan glanced over at Echo, who still looked like she was putting Marcus on trial. And that’s when Roan noticed that the rug in the living room was missing. He leaned back, looking through the doorway to make sure he was seeing that correctly.

“Well, I would still advise you to put yours together,” Echo argued.

“If he decided to murder Jaha, don’t you think a smart person who knows the law would have made it his first priority to establish an alibi?” Roan snapped, and Echo raised an eyebrow at him, as if Roan was now on trial. Marcus nodded in agreement, but now Roan was starting to wonder if something really did happen to Jaha. The rug was just there hours ago. And everyone was acting weird tonight… Marcus, Echo, Clarke… and suddenly, Clarke’s jittery behavior earlier was starting to make sense.

“He has been staying here, and all three of us were out of the house tonight, and we’re the only people who had motive to kill Jaha,” Marcus explained, and Roan furrowed his brows. As far as he knew, Clarke didn’t have motive… unless somehow, she found out about what was on the phone too. “Also, there is no body, Echo! It’s far more likely that he ran, that he’s off in some country where the feds can’t get to him.”

He glanced back at where the rug was. His body could have been wrapped up in it. And Roan already knew that Clarke was in the house that night. She could have had motive. And she was smart… she would have made sure to have a well-documented alibi for the night… which would explain why she would waste precious study time to go to the bonfire. And then she drove off with Bellamy… probably needing to have a person to validate her alibi for the whole night.

“Unless you think someone else had motive to kill him,” Marcus said accusatorily, leaning forward on the kitchen table to look up at Echo.

“I can’t think of anyone else. What about you, Roan?” Echo asked, glaring at him now.

“I think Jaha ran away. It’s not like we know anyone else who would want to kill him,” he lied as convincingly as he could.

“See?” Marcus groaned, before picking up his phone… probably to call Jaha again. But Roan had a horrible feeling that Jaha couldn’t pick up the phone because he was dead.

Roan stood up before going back into the living room. He didn’t see a single sign of struggle, no evidence that an altercation took place here. He glanced up, seeing the gold of the trophy reflecting a bit of light from the kitchen. There had to be a reason Clarke made him bring it back here. He picked it up, studying it closely… and that’s when he noticed that a small part of it had been broken off… and his stomach dropped. He had worked too many cases where small fragments of a murder weapon were enough to convict…

He forced himself to take a deep breath, reminding himself that Clarke is smart… that a lifetime trapped in that family of hers would have taught her to keep an eye out for the small things… that she of all people knew how to get away with this. She was going to be okay. She had to find a way to be okay. 


	6. He Killed Him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long long chapter, you guys. Took me longer than I thought. I should get another one up by Sunday, hopefully... provided HTGAWM doesn't kill off my son tonight and send me into a spiral like they did a year ago. 
> 
> Anyways, thanks for all the comments and support. I've been going through a rough patch lately, and all your comments have gone a long way in cheering me up. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and theories after this one!

_Clarke_

 

“What the fuck have you two been doing?” Raven shouted, and Bellamy pushed himself in front of Clarke to start shushing Raven.

“He was helping me get the blood off,” Clarke murmured, but that did little to ease Raven it seemed. Clarke shakily started rubbing at her neck as she looked down at Thelonious.

“Where are Murphy and Emori?” Bellamy growled, and Clarke’s head jerked up, looking around the room. No, they couldn’t have left. Her eyes flashed up to Bellamy, realizing what this meant… they were going to turn them in for this. It was smart, Clarke realized… getting ahead of the story, pinning it on Bellamy and Clarke. Hell, Clarke was ready to turn herself in. It was a convincing enough story.

“They ran off,” Raven muttered, but her eyes were now directed at Monty, who was sobbing in the corner hysterically.

“We need to go after them,” Clarke decided, but Bellamy put his hand up, signaling for them to stop talking. Clarke heard shouting from outside, likely from the hundreds of people running up and down the streets for the bonfire.

“We need to get out of here before anyone sees us,” Bellamy said, his eyes meeting Clarke. Clarke swallowed, before walking over to Monty. She held her hand out for him, and she could see Monty hesitate.

“We’re more likely to get caught if we stay here,” Clarke murmured.

“We?” Raven snapped, before Bellamy shushed her again.

“Yes, we,” Bellamy growled, and Monty finally took Clarke’s hand.

“There is no ‘we’ here. Monty and I didn’t do anything,” she snapped.

“We both have fingerprints on the murder weapon,” Monty murmured, and Raven’s mouth snapped shut. Then, there was a loud pounding on the door.

“Out the back,” Bellamy ordered, and Clarke tugged Monty toward the backdoor. Once outside, they just started running into the clearing behind Kane’s house, hearing the sound of rapid footsteps behind her.

She wasn’t sure how long they ran… but they ran until Raven was out of breath. And that’s when Clarke noticed that Bellamy wasn’t with them anymore.

“Where is he?” Clarke asked, feeling the tears streaming down her face. He left the house with them. She was sure of it. But why would he leave them?

“Probably going to the police like Murphy,” Raven muttered, and Clarke shook her head. He wouldn’t do that. He was very insistent that Clarke didn’t turn herself in. He was the one that told her it was going to be okay, that he was going to take care of her… and she believed him.

“Maybe he went to find Murphy,” Clarke suggested, but Raven wasn’t calming down. She started pacing around Monty, who had now fallen to the ground in a panic.

Minutes passed as Clarke wondered if she should call Bellamy… or if that would be the call that would place them this close to the crime scene. She forced herself to take a deep breath, reminding herself that Bellamy said he would take care of her… meaning he would find them.

Then, Raven’s phone started ringing. Clarke jumped in reaction, but Raven showed that Murphy was calling.

“Where the fuck are you?” Raven growled, and Clarke winced, not liking the fact that Raven’s phone now put her close enough to Kane’s house… then again, this phone call might be enough to keep Raven as much a part of this as the rest… which would mean she would have to stay quiet. “The clearing behind the house. Hurry.” Then, she hung up, and Clarke let out a breath.

About fifteen minutes later, Murphy found them.

“Where the hell is Blake?” Murphy snapped, and Clarke let out a huff.

“Probably turning us all in,” Monty whispered.

“Nah, he wouldn’t do that to princess,” Murphy muttered, and Clarke jerked her head in his direction, raising an eyebrow at him… and he just smirked in response.

“He’ll be here,” Clarke said to Raven, who was getting twitchier by the second.

“Where have you been?” Raven spat, and Clarke stepped toward Murphy, suspicious as well.

“I needed to get Emori out of there.”

“So, you just took off?’ Monty snapped, and Clarke’s jaw twitched.

“Emori is already on trial for murder. She has the most to lose here,” Murphy growled, and Clarke jumped in between Murphy and Monty, shooting a warning look at Murphy.

“You’re just taking care of her. We understand,” Clarke replied calmly, and Raven scoffed.

“So, Murphy disappeared to take care of his girlfriend. Now, where the hell did Bellamy go?” Raven asked.

“He’ll be here,” Clarke whispered, rubbing her neck as she looked around. He would be here. She needed him to be.

 

**One Month Earlier**

 

_Roan_

 

He woke up to the sight of blonde hair scattered across his chest and the feeling of Clarke’s lips on his neck. He closed his eyes again, rubbing circles into Clarke’s bare back with his thumb. He knew they still had a while before the alarm clock went off and they officially had to get out of bed… to face whatever wrath Kane had for them today.

Roan wished Kane hadn’t taken on Emori’s case. Not because he thought Emori was guilty. No, that girl might get into trouble, but she’s no murderer. It was because Kane was frazzled between the pressure of winning the case and the pressure of keeping Thelonious Jaha in check. Jaha would be a much more manageable client if he didn’t feel like his lawyer was undermining him with another case.

He felt Clarke’s hand slide down his stomach and Roan tilted his head to kiss Clarke’s forehead.

“Good morning,” he whispered, biting his lip as soon as he felt Clarke’s soft hand brush his cock.

“Morning,” she murmured into his neck, before letting her lips drag down to his collarbone. He closed his eyes again, focusing on the feeling of Clarke’s lips on his skin and her warm hand stroking up and down his cock. Then, his phone dinged with a text message. “Reach for that phone and I’m never touching your cock again,” she threatened, glancing up at him with a warning look in her eyes.

“It might be Kane,” Roan argued, as Clarke pushed the comforter off him with a challenging look on her face. He kept his eyes on her, resisting the urge to grab his phone… but it could be important. In a lot of their cases, a few minutes could make a huge difference.

“You sure you’d rather answer that text?” Clarke asked, settling herself down between his legs. He closed his eyes, trying to weigh his options here. On one hand, Clarke was so sexy when she got like this. He loved his mornings with her. On the other hand, Kane might actually murder him if he misses something.

With a groan, he leaned over to grab his phone. He read over the text. “I need to get to the office,” he sighed, but Clarke had already pulled off him with an annoyed look on her face. “It’s my job, Clarke.” She pondered this for a moment as he propped himself up, but he knew there was no winning here.

She leaned in, pressed a slow kiss to his lips… and Roan found himself doubting how badly he needed to get to Kane’s house. Then, she pressed a kiss to his earlobe, dragging it slightly with her teeth. “And to think I wanted you to fuck my mouth this morning,” she teased, before pulling away, earning a loud groan from Roan.

“Fucking tease,” he murmured, as Clarke strode into the bathroom.

“I’m gonna go take care of myself in the shower, and you’re not allowed to join me,” she snapped, before closing the door behind her.

He was still flustered by the time he made it over to Kane’s house. It certainly didn’t help that Clarke was quite… vocal.

“Where is Emori?” he mumbled, as he brushed past Echo. Emori was almost always in the house, especially since Kane wanted to keep an eye on her.

“Murphy’s her next-door-neighbor. She’s his job right now,” Echo muttered, looking pissed off at something.

“What’s the new case and why is it pissing you off?” Roan teased, and she let out a huff.

“Our client takes really strong sleeping pills every night… the kind that makes her do crazy shit while sleep walking,” Echo explained, leaning against the wall.

“Who did she kill?” Roan groaned, and Echo’s lips quirked a bit.

“Her husband’s best friend… allegedly while unconscious.”

“God, we’re fucked,” he growled, hearing a creak coming from upstairs. That meant he only had a few more moments until Kane found a way to ruin his day.

“Oh, that’s not the worst part,” Echo replied, and he jerked his head up to look at her with furrowed brows. “That’s the case me and two of the kids are working on. The rest of you are on Emori’s case.”

“He’s splitting us?” Roan snapped.

“I can’t have Clarke on Emori’s case. It works out better this way,” Kane huffed as he marched past them into the kitchen.

“For who? Echo has an impossible case and only half the help she needs, and I’m stuck on a case that I still don’t think we should have taken,” he snapped, following after him.

“I call dibs on Monty being the other one I get,” Echo said, and Roan whipped his head around to glare at her.

“No, she can’t just take the two smartest ones,” Roan spat, and Echo started laughing.

“He does have a point,” Kane murmured, and Roan felt his phone vibrating. His heart stopped as soon as he saw who was calling, and he nearly sprinted back into the hallway.

“You are not supposed to be calling me,” he spat. This morning was getting off to a rough start.

“Hello to you too,” Ontari teased, and he bit the inside of his mouth… waiting for how she was going to ruin his life this time. “You know, you haven’t been responding to my texts.”

“I’ve been very busy. Also, you are not supposed to contact me directly,” he reminded, and she let out a huff.

“You had no problem calling me when you needed a little help at work. Don’t see why this can’t be any different,” she replied, and he heard some echoing of other voices in the background.

“Where are you?” he snapped.

“Just got in town, actually. You and I have some renegotiating to do,” she replied with a giggle, and Roan’s eyes widened.

“The settlement is more than fair, and you know it. Just sign,” he growled, and Echo walked into the hallway, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Hmm… I never thought of it that way,” she teased, and he threw his head back in frustration. “I’ll think it over as I get settled in my hotel. Talk to you soon.” Then, she hung up.

He swallowed, thinking this over. Ontari was in town, and she was clearly up to something. But he couldn’t just go track her down and deal with her quickly, not with two cases going on.

“I take it you didn’t tell her I said hi?” Echo shrugged, and Roan shot her a warning look. This was the absolute last thing he needed. He was about to snap at her, when the front door opened. For a moment, he feared it was Ontari. But it was Murphy and Emori, looking like they were in the middle of an argument. He let out a sigh of relief, before his stomach dropped at the realization that Ontari wouldn’t be above just showing up here. And that couldn’t happen while Clarke was in the house, not until he told her.

He found himself pacing in the foyer, waiting for Clarke to come in so he could grab her before anything else happened. But Bellamy came in next, followed by Raven. Finally, Clarke came in with Monty, shooting him an annoyed look immediately.

“Hey, Clarke, can I talk to you for a second?” Roan tried to say calmly, but he could feel himself starting to feel shaky.

“Actually, I need to see Clarke right away!” Marcus shouted from inside his office, and Clarke brushed past him, rolling her eyes. Roan let out a slight groan, before reminding himself that Ontari wasn’t here yet. He still had time to talk to Clarke.

He paced into the living room, noticing that Bellamy was giving him a strange look… which confused him.

“Something wrong, Blake?” he asked, cocking his head to the side.

“No, you just seem off today,” Bellamy said, narrowing his eyes at Roan… almost accusatorily. “Something wrong with you?”

“Of course not,” Roan snapped, before walking back into the hallway.

 

_Echo_

 

“Clarke, you’re gonna be on this case with me,” Echo explained, as Clarke started packing up her bag. “I need another one of you. The rest of you will be working on Emori’s case today.”

“Ooh, exciting,” Emori muttered from the corner of the room, and Echo had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. Both Marcus and Roan seemed to be irritated with Emori already, but Echo kind of enjoyed her dark sense of humor.

“I’ll join,” Bellamy volunteered, and Echo cocked her head in confusion. The two of them didn’t exactly get along… then again, she liked pairing them up since their competitiveness usually made them work much harder. She gestured for them to follow her into the kitchen, so Marcus could get to work divvying out work for Emori’s case.

Echo pulled up the video from Diana’s security feed, and let Clarke and Bellamy take a look. She knew that Diana had been a long-term client of Marcus… but it was stupid to take on the case. The video clearly shows Diana dragging the body across the floor, as she was sleep walking.

Bellamy and Clarke flinched at all the right places, and Echo let out a huff as she sat down across from them.

“Basically, we’re fucked. Our only hope is to get this dropped to a lower charge than first degree murder, since she was heavily under the influence of sleeping medication,” Echo explained, and Clarke started flipping through the case file.

“How do we do that?” Bellamy asked, furrowing his brows in confusion.

“Prove that she had no motive to kill her husband’s best friend. That shouldn’t be too hard, after all. They were quite close from what I gather,” Echo sighed, although she doubts any jury would accept that after seeing video of Diana literally dragging his blood-soaked body into a hallway.

“So, you want us to go through the family, see what all we can dig up?” Clarke asked, narrowing her eyes at the file.

“Exactly. Let’s hope we find something,” Echo sighed as she stood up. Bellamy gathered his things, and Marcus called him into his office. Clarke was still focused on reading over the case, but Echo couldn’t pass up an opportunity to talk to Clarke alone. “Hey, I know you’re not on Emori’s case, but what makes you sure she didn’t do it?” Echo whispered, and Clarke’s head jerked up to look at her.

“Because whoever did it knew what they were doing,” Clarke replied, furrowing her brows, and Echo nodded along. It was the same thing that Echo had been thinking this whole time. It was too professionally done to be pulled off by one scared girl whose only actual crime is dealing. “That and there’s a large list of people who could have done it,” Clarke whispered, glancing over Echo’s shoulder to make sure no one was listening.

“Are you thinking it was one of Jaha’s competitors?” Echo asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Possibly. I mean, it could be anyone that Thelonious has pissed off really. I’ll make you a list of who I can think of if you promise not to tell anyone it’s from me,” Clarke explained, and Echo nodded along. It would have been hard enough for Clarke to get away from those people in the first place. The last thing she needed was to be dragged back into that world over this case.

“I normally wouldn’t ask… but the quickest way to get this out of court is to find who actually did it,” Echo tried to elaborate, but Clarke put her hand up to stop her, before reaching into her bag to pull out a notebook. She watched quietly as Clarke wrote down name after name.

When she handed the list over, there were at least fifteen names on it.

“Bellamy, we need to get going,” Clarke shouted, as Echo tucked the list into her pocket.

“Text me as soon as you find something. I’ll let you know if there are any updates on the case,” Echo replied, as Bellamy came out of Marcus’ office looking a bit flustered.

“I’m driving, princess,” Bellamy snapped, and Clarke let out a huff as she followed after him.

“Hey, Clarke,” Roan tried to get her attention.

“Nope. She’s busy,” Echo snapped, and Clarke shot him an apologetic look before walking out the door. Roan turned to glare at Echo, but she didn’t really care. She gestured for him to follow her into the kitchen, as she pulled the list out of her pocket.

“I really needed to talk to her about something,” Roan groaned, and Echo bit the inside of her mouth to keep from smirking. She had a feeling about what he seemed so eager to talk to her about. Too bad that should have been dealt with a long time ago.

“Which of these names do you know?” Echo asked, handing the list over to him.

“Not many. And the ones I do recognize aren’t ones I know all that much about,” he sighed as he looked the list over.

“I recognize a few. I’ll get some files on all of them and see what jumps out at us,” she replied, and Roan shot her a warning look. “She willingly made the list for me. I’ll burn this as soon as I have them all saved. No one will know she told us.”

 

_Monty_

 

“We weren’t even really friends,” Emori sighed, leaning back in her seat.

“Okay, maybe don’t say that on the stand,” Murphy suggested, and Monty let out a huff. She wasn’t exactly making this easy so far.

“Why don’t you tell us how you two met?” Roan asked, kicking his feet up on the coffee table.

“I used to deal to one of his friends, and he got referred to me. He bought from me a couple of times…”

“What specifically?” Raven asked, jotting down notes as Emori talked.

“Just weed. He said he was too worried about getting hooked on anything else and only wanted something to help calm down. Over time, he started telling me that he was struggling to keep up in his classes because he was so stressed out all the time. Apparently, things weren’t going well for him, and he seemed like he needed a friend. So, we started kind of being friends.”

“Elaborate on what you mean about things not going well for him,” Kane said, pacing in the back of the room.

“His dad cut him off, so he was paying for everything out of pocket. He and Clarke stopped speaking, and he wasn’t talking to his family either. He just didn’t really seem to have anyone in his life,” Emori explained, and this was the first time that Monty noticed real emotion on her face. She seemed actually upset about Wells. “So, we just started spending more time together. Sometimes, he would help me deal to richer kids that normally were too skittish to talk to me. We spent most of the summer that way, actually.”

“And what about the night he was killed?” Kane asked, and Monty noticed Emori’s face twitch slightly.

“He was really angry about something when he came over to my apartment. I think he was in another fight with his dad,” she huffed, and Monty flipped through the case papers. Jaha had an alibi for that night, thankfully. “It was mid-afternoon when he stopped by. I was on my way to my bartending shift. He actually made me late, which my boss was not happy about.”

“That was also the night that the clock-in machine at the bar malfunctioned, so that weakens her alibi,” Kane huffed, and Monty bit his lip.

“Yeah and it really doesn’t help that I had to step away early to drive a drunk friend home,” Emori muttered, and Monty glanced over at Murphy, trying to see if he was still buying her story. It’s just a little too convenient that there was a window where no one could successfully place her. It could have been enough time for her to kill and store Wells in a freezer.

“Nor does it help that the friend you drove home disappeared two months ago after almost getting busted for possession,” Roan groaned, and Monty started involuntarily shaking his head. If he was in the jury, he would immediately vote guilty. There were just too many things going wrong in her story. Not to mention the fact that it was kind of weird that someone like her just became friends with someone like Wells Jaha. Wells was picture perfect, the kind of rich kid who never in a million years would fall into a friendship with someone like Emori. Monty was still convinced they were sleeping together. It was the only logical explanation.

After a few more questions, Kane called for a break, before sending Roan off to the DA’s office. Murphy pulled Emori aside to talk to her about something.

“They have to be sleeping together, right?” Raven asked, whispering right in Monty’s ear.

“Yeah, definitely. He’d be way more skeptical of her if he wasn’t,” Monty sighed, leaning back into the couch. He kind of wished that Clarke was allowed to be on this case. She usually caught things that he missed, and she probably would be the best at poking holes in Emori’s story. Then again, things were really quiet with Clarke and Bellamy out of the house for the day.

“Roan?” he heard a voice shout, followed by the sound of the front door shutting behind her.

“He just stepped out,” Raven shouted back, and a dark-haired woman rounded the corner with a fake smile on her face. Then, Monty heard the sound of Echo pacing quickly into the room.

“Ontari, you are not supposed to be here,” Echo snapped, as the woman took a seat in the corner of the room.

“Roan isn’t answering my calls. I’ll just sit here quietly and mind my own business until he gets back,” Ontari said with a grin, and Kane walked into the room with a furrowed brow.

“The second you do anything to interfere with my work, I’m throwing you out,” Kane warned, and Raven’s wide eyes met Monty’s.

“Are these the kids this year? They’re adorable,” Ontari said, grinning at them, and Monty looked to Echo to provide some kind of answers.

“Guys, this is Roan’s soon to be ex-wife, Ontari,” Echo sighed, and Raven grabbed Monty’s arm excitedly.

“Holy fuck, he’s married?” Murphy asked with a chuckle, and Kane shot him a warning look.

 

_Bellamy_

 

“Honestly, this isn’t that necessary. I killed him, and I should go to jail for that,” Diana groaned as she let them in. Bellamy exchanged an annoyed glance with Clarke, before walking into the house.

He was already regretting volunteering for this case instead of just staying in for Emori’s… but he needed a bit of one on one time with Clarke, so he could find a way to talk to her about Roan. He had been trying to bring it up for weeks… but it wasn’t that easy. Firstly, Bellamy wasn’t even supposed to know about her and Roan, and he couldn’t exactly explain to Clarke how he found out… not unless he wanted Clarke to punch him right in the face. Then, he still didn’t know if it was going to be news to Clarke. From what he could tell based on stalking Ontari online, it looked like Roan and her were separated, maybe going through a divorce. Roan never wore a ring, and was careful never to bring her up in conversation… despite Bellamy constantly trying to trick him into admitting something. For all Bellamy knew, Clarke knew about his marriage and was fine with it since he was separated.

And then there was the issue of if this was any of Bellamy’s business. After all, he and Clarke were barely friends. They still fought like crazy, although less heated than before, more playful. As her sort of friend, he was kind of obligated to tell her if she didn’t already know… but he also didn’t want her to shoot the messenger.

Within the last few days, Bellamy resolved himself to the fact that he had to tell her. It was clear that Roan was never going to casually mention his wife or that Clarke could find out on her own. So he jumped at the chance to take this case with her… if only because it would give them enough time together that Bellamy could find a good opportunity to tell her.

“You have a family to think about. If we can find a way to keep you at home for your kids, we need to do that,” Clarke explained calmly, and Bellamy nodded along, even though he knew there wasn’t a chance in hell Diana wasn’t going to prison for this.

They started with the husband, since Diana was not proving to be all that helpful.

“You saw her take her sleeping pill that night?” Clarke confirmed.

“No, but she always took it. Diana can’t sleep without it,” her husband explained, and Bellamy couldn’t help but notice that he wasn’t more distraught over this. He didn’t seem to blame his wife at all… despite the fact that she murdered his best friend in her sleep. He should have some kind of resentment or bitterness toward her.

“Anything else interesting about that night? Was she on any other medications or was she in a bad mood prior to going to bed?” Bellamy asked.

“She had some wine, which she’s normally not supposed to drink with her sleeping pill. But it was a special occasion. I just got a promotion at work that would make enough for her to stop working and stay at home,” he explained. Bellamy glanced over at Clarke, who didn’t seem bothered by this information. Bellamy didn’t have enough of a medical knowledge to know if the wine would be enough to provoke her into… murdering someone.

They moved through the kids, listening to gory descriptions of waking up to see their mom dragging a dead body down the hallway in her sleep.

“It’s this thing she does when sleep walking. She finds a mess and can’t help but clean it up. I tried to wake her up, but she wouldn’t. I started yelling for my dad,” the daughter explained, and Bellamy cringed at the image.

After a few more minutes, Clarke excused herself to go to the bathroom, and Bellamy relaxed into his seat and checked his phone. The others were complaining about the foul mood that Kane seemed to be in, and for a second, Bellamy was grateful not to be there.

But as he went over his notes for the day, seeing descriptions of some of the bizarre things Diana did while sleep walking, Bellamy kind of wished he had the other case. Diana sat down at the table with him as Clarke walked back into the room.

Bellamy studied Clarke’s face closely, noticing that she looked almost happy. And then Bellamy realized that wasn’t what was going on… Clarke was on to something.

“Diana, how would you describe your relationship with Trevor?” Clarke asked, cocking her head to the side.

“He’s my husband’s best friend,” she sighed.

“Clarke asked about your relationship with him, not about your husband’s,” Bellamy pointed out.

“He was my friend too. I cared about him. I mean, that’s why I agreed to let him stay with us for a while,” she explained… a little too defensively.

“Did you two spend any time together when your husband wasn’t around? Perhaps just hanging out at the house or grabbing dinner?” Clarke asked, and Bellamy noticed Diana’s eyes widen slightly, before her stern face took over again.

“Not really, no,” she said. “Look, I have to get dinner started. Who knows how many more family dinners I get?”

Clarke nodded, gesturing that it was time to leave. “We’ll keep you updated on your case,” Clarke said, before grabbing Bellamy’s arm and pulling him into the hallway.

“You gonna tell me what’s going on in that pretty little head of yours, princess?” he teased, and Clarke scrunched her face up. Once they were outside, she practically skipped toward his car, and Bellamy had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.

As soon as they were in the car, Clarke turned to him excitedly and announced, “Diana was screwing Trevor.”

“How the hell did you get that?” Bellamy groaned as he tugged on his seatbelt.

“I was first tipped off by how weird Diana kept acting when we asked her about her relationship to Trevor,” Clarke explained, as Bellamy pulled in reverse. It was true. Her statements to Kane were always pretty vague in describing Trevor. It was almost like she was being too careful “Then, I rifled through their upstairs bathroom.”

“You did what?” Bellamy snapped, and Clarke actually started giggling. “This is serious.”

“Oh, come on. Like you’ve never gone through someone’s bathroom to snoop,” Clarke said, still laughing.

“Okay, what did you find?”

“Don’t know if I should tell you, since you’re judging me right now,” she teased, and Bellamy let out a huff.

“Clarke,” he groaned.

“Okay fine, since you’re dying to know,” Clarke teased, and Bellamy clenched his jaw. “I found condoms. A lot of them.”

“That literally means nothing. She could be having sex with her husband,” Bellamy groaned, kind of pissed that Clarke got him this excited for nothing. “Plus, she has a teenage son.”

“Yeah, but her son’s condoms are hidden in a box under his bed,” Clarke said, and Bellamy whipped his head to look at her, eyes wide. “Oh, come on, I was gone for a little too long, Bellamy. You should have known I was up to something.”

“This is the last time I volunteer to work with you,” Bellamy sighed, leaning back in his seat, keeping his eyes fixed on the red light.

“Not true. You have a secret soft spot for me,” she teased, poking him in the side. “Anyway, the condoms aren’t her husband’s either. Remember him going off on a rant about the nasty fight they had about him getting a vasectomy?”

Bellamy’s jaw dropped slightly as he looked over at Clarke’s smug face. She was right. Diana’s husband had the vasectomy over a year ago, and if the two of them were monogamous, there would be no reason to have condoms in the house. Diana could have been sleeping with Trevor.

“We need to find out if her husband knew about it,” Bellamy said, and Clarke started nodding excitedly.

“And the kids all said that their mom would clean messes while sleep walking. He could have murdered Trevor, led his drugged wife to the body, and gotten video evidence of her cleaning up the crime scene. She’d wake up and assume she did it while sleepwalking,” Clarke broke it down, before gesturing toward the green light. Bellamy muttered an apology, since he got so caught up in figuring the case out to pay actual attention. “We just need to prove he knew about the affair. I mean, it makes sense. He got angry, killed his friend that was screwing his wife, then framed his wife. He gets revenge on both of them at once!” Clarke said excitedly, and Bellamy couldn’t help but smile. They figured the impossible case out.

“I think Echo knows how to confirm he knew. And I’ve seen Kane provoke smarter people into confessing before on the stand,” Bellamy smirked, and Clarke started giggling. They probably shouldn’t be this giddy about a murderer… but it meant their client went free, so he let himself enjoy it for a moment.

He took the turn onto Kane’s street, imagining how stupid the others would feel for dissing the case earlier. Then, he remembered that the whole reason he even took this case was to find a moment alone with Clarke, so he could let her know the truth about Roan. He chickened out of it in the ride over, not wanting to ruin her mood when he needed her brain to be sharp. But now, the case was close to being over. And he wasn’t sure when he’d get another opportunity like this.

They pulled into Kane’s driveway, and Clarke jumped out of the car excitedly. “Clarke wait,” he called out as he got out of his seat. She turned around, still grinning from the excitement of solving the case. He knew he needed to tell her the truth… but she just looked so happy and proud of herself… and Bellamy really didn’t want to ruin that for her. She deserved this brief happiness before Kane buried her in work and she got stuck with staying up all night looking for proof of the affair.

“Something wrong?” Clarke asked, furrowing her brows in confusion.

“No,” Bellamy lied, pushing his hands in his pockets as he walked toward the house. “Just wanted to say good job.”

“Are you actually admitting I’m good for something?” Clarke teased, and Bellamy bit his lip.

“Even if I say yes, no one will ever believe you, princess,” he replied with a smirk, before Clarke hit his arm playfully. They walked into the house, and he immediately heard the sound of arguing upstairs. Bellamy furrowed his brows, looking into the living room to see who wasn’t in there.

“What’s going on upstairs?” Clarke asked, setting her purse down on one of the chairs.

“Roan’s wife showed up and now they’re fighting,” Murphy mumbled, before flipping the page of a transcript. Bellamy’s eyes shot over to Clarke, whose eyes were wide. Luckily, everyone else in the room was too busy to notice her reaction. But now Bellamy knew for sure that Clarke had no idea. She clenched her jaw, before leaning down to dig through her purse.

He stood there, frozen, waiting for the tears or screaming to start… but they never came. Instead, she grabbed her keys and phone and glanced up at Bellamy, all traces of the thrill from solving the case gone.

“Hey, will you tell Kane what we figured out? I just remembered I have to do something real quick,” Clarke said a little shakily, and Bellamy nodded quickly.

“Are you okay?” he asked, and Clarke nodded before brushing past him… and Bellamy felt like shit for not telling her sooner.

He made sure to give Clarke all the credit when he told Kane and Echo what they found, and Bellamy immediately got buried in proving what they figured out. While Clarke was gone, Roan’s wife came down the stairs and quickly left. Roan came down a few minutes later, looking frustrated. His eyes immediately met Bellamy’s when he walked into the living room, before he started looking around… probably searching for Clarke.

“We got back while you were upstairs. She said she had to take care of something,” Bellamy answered the question before he even got the chance to ask. He watched closely as Roan swallowed, noticing the brief panic in his eyes when he realized that Clarke would have found out about Ontari. He immediately turned around and got his phone out, probably to call Clarke.

Bellamy sent her a quick text, telling her that he had their work covered and that she didn’t need to worry about it.

 

_Raven_

 

“I’m just saying I missed your sassy commentary in court,” Raven teased, pinching Clarke’s cheek slightly. Of course, Kane easily proved Diana’s affair and all but provoked her husband into admitting he did it. She just wished Clarke had been able to see her own handiwork.

“I probably would have roasted Kane’s tie choice. How terrible was it this time?” Clarke joked, before taking another sip of her drink.

“Awful,” Raven groaned, and Clarke started laughing hysterically. Raven was glad that she came out tonight. She really never spent that much time with Clarke, despite Clarke being the one person in law school that Raven felt like she had things in common with. She only agreed to reach out to Clarke after the third time Bellamy mentioned that Clarke seemed upset. “I think he’s so flustered with Emori’s case that he forgot how to power clash.”

“I mean, straight men shouldn’t even try,” Clarke snorted, and Raven waved for Niylah to bring them another round.

“Okay, so why are you all sad and shit?” Raven asked, and Clarke furrowed her brows.

“Why do you think I’m sad?” Clarke asked, and Raven rolled her eyes.

“Is this about your secret boyfriend?”

“There is no secret boyfriend anymore. I found out I was the side hoe,” Clarke muttered, and Raven let out a groan.

“This is why you need a girlfriend next time,” Raven sighed, and Clarke nodded along.

“You know what the best thing about being bi is?” Clarke asked.

“Double the opportunity to get laid?”

“And double the opportunity to get your heart ripped out,” Clarke murmured, resting her head on Raven’s shoulder.

“Ugh, true,” Raven sighed, resting her head on Clarke’s as Niylah brought them their drinks.

“Wait, what happened to your girlfriend?” Clarke asked, before taking a huge gulp of her drink.

“She was never my girlfriend, not really,” Raven mumbled, shaking her head slightly. It wasn’t like Luna didn’t want to be Raven’s girlfriend… she tried. Raven was the problem, like she always was. “I’m not good at serious things. Like, I liked her a lot. She’s super smart and pretty and kind… but I just wasn’t ready for that. And we’re working all the time. She felt a bit used, so I fucked it up like I always do.”

“Have you tried talking to her about your issues with serious relationships?” Clarke asked, tugging on Raven’s hand like an impatient child, and Raven sighed.

“Yeah, but I’m just a huge mess and she doesn’t deserve someone like that,” Raven blew it off, before Clarke gripped Raven’s face between her hands.

“No, you’re not a mess,” Clarke said seriously, and now Raven was convinced that Clarke was drunk, so she bit her lip to keep from laughing. “You’re just a beautiful smart person who maybe doesn’t have the best dating history. Luna would be so lucky to have you. Like so lucky. Because you’re beautiful.”

“Okay, I might need to cut you off,” Raven teased, and Clarke scrunched her face together, pissed that Raven wasn’t accepting the compliment.

“You should call her,” Clarke huffed, as Raven took a big gulp of her drink, needing to catch up. “No really. She probably misses you. I mean, why wouldn’t she? You’re hot as fuck and you’re so funny. You should call her,” Clarke insisted, and Raven narrowed her eyes at her.

“I’m beginning to think we’re gonna need a designated driver tonight,” she realized as she pulled out her phone.

“Ooh, get Monty. He has that weird disco music in his car,” Clarke said, patting her hands on Raven’s arm excitedly. Raven started dialing, trying not to burst out laughing at Clarke’s excitement.

“Please don’t tell me I have to go back to Kane’s,” Monty groaned, and Raven heard a voice in the background.

“No, bitch. Clarke and I are drunk. Come pick us up,” Raven ordered, laughing slightly as she talked.

“What does she want?” she heard the voice in the background say, and she was pretty sure it was Bellamy.

“Are you and Bellamy having a guy’s night?” Raven teased, and Clarke started clapping her hands excitedly.

“Well, we were, until our annoying coworker ordered me to come pick her drunk ass up,” Monty snapped, and Raven burst out laughing.

“Bring Bellamy! Drunk Clarke is funny, and I want to give him shit for the stupid questions he asked Emori,” Raven teased, before hearing Bellamy let out a loud groan in the background. “Grounders. Ten minutes. Love you!” Then, she hung up, and Clarke burst out laughing.

Raven downed the rest of her drink quickly, before signaling for the checks.

Monty showed up on time, of course, and a grumpy Bellamy got out of the car to help them in. When he wasn’t looking, Raven snuck into the front seat, earning a groan from him.

“He called shot gun, Raven,” Monty chastised, but Clarke couldn’t stop giggling along with Raven.

“Sorry, Bellamy,” Raven said, glancing behind her as he slid in next to Clarke.

“Okay, why are you two this drunk?” Bellamy snapped, leaning forward to glare at Raven. She narrowed her eyes at him, wondering why he was so mad. It was his idea that she took Clarke out for drinks.

“Because I’m gonna die alone and Clarke found out she was the side hoe,” Raven replied, and she noticed how Bellamy didn’t react to that statement.

“Clarke is not a side hoe,” Monty jumped in.

“I know! I’m at least a main hoe,” Clarke murmured, as she fumbled with her seatbelt. Bellamy let out a groan before leaning over to help her.

“Wait, why are you guys all boring and sober on a Friday night?” Raven asked, poking Monty in the shoulder.

“Because I’m engaged and responsible. Don’t know what Bellamy’s excuse is,” Monty shrugged.

“Because I’m not a sorority girl who gets drunk after two drinks,” he snapped, and Clarke had an outraged expression on her face.

“I’ll have you know that I quit my sorority, asshole,” Clarke muttered, and Raven sunk back into her seat, giggling to herself.

“Also, I’m willing to bet that it takes a lot more to get Clarke drunk,” Monty added in and Raven nodded along.

“My main hoe Clarke had at least four,” she said.

“Aww, I’m your main hoe?” Clarke slurred, and Raven reached back to grab Clarke’s hand. “You know, I love you, Raven. You’re just the greatest person in the world, and I need you to know that,” Clarke said seriously, and maybe it was the alcohol talking, but Raven believed her.

“So, it’s not the friend who decided to pick you up from a bar out of nothing but the goodness of his heart?” Monty asked, and Clarke started pouting.

“I’m sorry. You’re a great person too. So smart, and nice. And you have a car! And you drove it here!” Clarke said excitedly, leaning forward to pat Monty’s shoulders. Raven snuck a glance over at Monty, who was struggling to keep from laughing.

“So, am I the only person that doesn’t get a love confession from Clarke?” Bellamy teased, and Clarke let out a huff.

“I was getting to you,” Clarke snapped, and Raven burst out laughing as she turned around to look at them. “But now I’m mad at you, so stay on that side of the car, mister.” Bellamy’s face was buried in his hands as he laughed his ass off.

“Which street do I take?” Monty asked, and Raven turned back around, gesturing for him to turn left here.

“Clarke’s apartment was kind of hard to find,” Raven explained, and Monty nodded along.

“Okay, so I know why Clarke got drunk tonight, but why did you?” Bellamy asked, and Raven let out a huff.

“I miss Luna,” Raven pouted, as she mentally argued with herself about whether or not to start texting her. It was probably a bad idea… but she was also kind of drunk, so it seemed like less of a bad idea. “Wait, why wasn’t Murphy with you guys?” she asked, realizing he wasn’t in their little guy’s night group.

“He said he had plans. Not sure what that means,” Monty shrugged, and Raven thought that over. Murphy didn’t strike her as a very social person. What kind of plans could he have?

“Turn right up here,” Raven instructed, and Monty turned his blinker on. She realized that Clarke had been awfully quiet, and glanced back into the backseat. Clarke was fast asleep on Bellamy’s shoulder. “Oh my God, that’s adorable,” she teased, and Bellamy rolled his eyes. “Monty, Clarke is asleep on Bellamy,” she said excitedly.

Monty took a quick look over his shoulder, before bursting into a shit-eating grin. “Please take a picture so we can blackmail them with it,” he replied, but Raven already had her phone out.

“I hate both of you,” Bellamy whispered. She snapped the photo, before texting it to Murphy and Monty.

“I’m gonna make this the new background on my phone,” Raven joked, and Bellamy let out a huff. “Oh, it’s this one,” Raven realized when Monty almost drove past her building. Monty jerked his brakes pretty hard, throwing all of them forward.

“Monty, I don’t like you anymore,” Clarke mumbled sleepily.

“Wait, this is where you live?” Bellamy asked, and Raven was already opening her door. Clarke was going to need help getting upstairs.

“Did you expect princess to actually live in a castle?” Raven joked, as Bellamy stepped out of the car, probably to steal his seat back. Clarke stumbled out behind him, and Bellamy was quick to help stabilize her. Raven got on Clarke’s other side, helping her toward the building.

Slowly, they made it into the lobby. “Okay, I’m gonna speed this all up,” Bellamy groaned, before picking Clarke up and carrying her into the elevator. Raven pulled out Clarke’s keys, trying to resist the urge to snap a photo of Bellamy carrying a half-asleep Clarke… who very happily just rested her head on his chest. “Shut up, Raven,” Bellamy snapped.

“Didn’t say a thing,” she replied, as she pressed the button.

“Shut up, Raven,” Clarke mumbled, and Raven burst out laughing. It was good to see them agreeing on something for once.

 

_Murphy_

 

“If you thought all I do is lie, why the hell did you make Kane take my case?” Emori yelled, and Murphy covered his face in his hands.

“You never told them about the phone, Emori. Wells left his phone here that night! You need to tell them that!” he said as calmly as he could, but he was angry. For days, she had been retelling the events of the day that Wells died. Not once did she mention his phone.

Emori tugged off her sweatshirt in a huff, before throwing it onto her bed. “Why are you doing this?”

“Excuse me?” he asked, stepping toward her.

“You don’t know me, you have no reason to care about me… why do you care so much about me going away for murder?” she snapped, and he bit his lip.

It was the same question everyone kept asking him… and the same question that he really didn’t have an answer for.

“I just want to help,” he admitted, because that was the closest he would ever get to the truth. His dad went away for a murder he didn’t commit. And he didn’t want that to happen to Emori just because she couldn’t afford a lawyer. He saw a lot of himself in her… the way she kept trying to push people away, the way she didn’t trust him, the way that she kept lying to keep her distance. He knew what it felt like to be like that, and he wanted to help her.

It was new for him… to want to help another person. Much of his life had been about keeping himself afloat. But he was finally okay, and he just wanted her to be too.

“Can you just tell me the passcode for the phone?” he asked calmly, and he could see her struggling to say yes. “I won’t take it to Kane if you don’t want me to. But if there’s something that could help free you, you need to tell us.”

“2683,” Emori said, before sitting down on the bed. “And if you think I can trust Kane, you can show him,” she conceded. As Murphy scrolled through the texts, he realized just how badly Kane needed to see it.

When he got to Kane’s house, Roan and Echo had already left.

“Professor Kane?” Murphy shouted as he closed the door behind him.

“In here,” Kane shouted, and Murphy made his way into the kitchen.

“Emori has been keeping something from you,” Murphy started, and Kane let out a breath, not seeming surprised. After all, his clients lie to him all the damn time. “Wells left his phone at her house,” he explained, unlocking the phone before passing it over to Kane so he could read the text.

“Holy shit,” Kane muttered, his brows furrowed at the phone.

 

**One Month Later**

 

_Marcus_

 

He knocked on the door again, before pacing nervously on the doorstep. He knew it was kind of late, but he needed to get this over with.

“What are you doing here?” Abby asked, opening the door for him to come in. Her hair was a bit messy, and she had her robe thrown on. He felt bad that he had woken her up, but it needed to be done.

“I needed to tell you something before I went to the police tomorrow morning,” he explained, and her eyes widened in confusion. “Um, a month ago, a student of mine found a piece of evidence for Wells’ murder,” he started, and she cocked her head to the side, probably wondering what the hell this had to do with her. “I needed to verify that it was true before I could do anything. But given recent events, I realized that I should have turned it over immediately.”

“Are you telling me you figured out who killed Wells?” she asked, and he bit his lip.

“No, not exactly. I have my suspicions, but Wells and Thelonious were having a fight before he died,” he explained, and Abby bit her lip. “Abby,” he said seriously, before swallowing. “For some reason, Wells accused Thelonious of killing your husband.”

“What?” she snapped, her eyes wide with confusion, and Marcus really didn’t want to have to say it again. The thought of it made him sick. He had already screamed at Thelonious about it that night.

“He killed Jake, Abby. He killed him,” Marcus sighed, and that’s when her tears started falling.


	7. It Never Happened

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very, um, extra smut this chapter. Little voyeuristic. Just so you guys know. But this was one of my favorite cases on HTGAWM and I couldn't resist soooo sorry not sorry.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys like this update. Angsty Roarke, a huge chunk of Bellarke, drama, fighting, general awkwardness. I at least think it's a good time. Let me know what you all think! Love you guys!

_Murphy_

 

“Sure you don’t want to join the fun?” Raven snapped, before taking another whack at Jaha’s body. Their little fire died down, and now all they had to do was bag up his remains.

“How can you joke about this?” Monty growled, before Raven took another whack. Murphy stepped away from their confrontation, crossing over to Bellamy who was carrying a bag to his car.

“What are we going to do about him?” Murphy whispered, and Bellamy furrowed his brows at him.

“What do you mean?” Bellamy asked, and Murphy let out a huff.

“Monty has done the least tonight. He’s just a witness, really,” Murphy explained, as Bellamy’s eyes flickered back to Monty. He knew he was right. Monty could easily explain away his compliance with fear. If he had actually been at fault for anything tonight, they wouldn’t have to worry about him blabbing to the police.

“There’s nothing we can do, except pray he can get past this,” Bellamy muttered, and Clarke came up to them, carrying another bag. He waited until Clarke was out of earshot to step closer to Bellamy.

“Do you know who will actually go down for this if he talks?” he asked, raising his eyebrows, and Bellamy bit his lip, before glancing over at Clarke with a worried expression on his face.

“We’ll all go down,” he finally said, and Murphy rolled his eyes.

“Do you think a jury would see it that way? You and I will look like two people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, Raven and Monty will argue they were brainwashed,” he explained, using the same argument that Professor Kane would use. “But Emori and Clarke? They had motive, and they both have questionable pasts.”

Bellamy’s head whipped in Murphy’s direction with confusion in his eyes. “Clarke doesn’t have motive.”

“No, but that’s because she didn’t know what Emori did,” Murphy murmured, and Bellamy cocked his head to the side. “That phone that Emori went there for… it had proof that Jaha killed Jake Griffin.”

Bellamy’s jaw dropped, as he searched for Clarke, who had gone to help Raven continue to dismember Jaha’s body.

“You can’t tell her. If things go south, she needs to be able to say she didn’t know,” Murphy said quickly, and Bellamy’s jaw clicked. “Look, I know that you and I aren’t on the best terms. But if this all falls apart, Clarke and Emori have one hell of a motive, and you and I have backgrounds that are questionable at best. We could all spend the rest of our lives in prison just because Raven and Monty turned on us.”

“I think I know how to shut them up,” Bellamy growled, looking at Monty with a grave face.

“I really hope this plan doesn’t involve another murder,” Murphy joked, and Bellamy smacked him on the back of the head. “I mean, that’s not the worst solution. We already are making a trip to the dumpster.”

“Shut up,” Bellamy snapped, before marching toward his car with a determined look on his face.

 

**Two Weeks Earlier**

 

_Marcus_

 

He noticed the obvious lack of his two colleagues as he walked into the lecture hall. He let out a huff, before pulling out his phone to text them both. It was no secret that Roan and Echo were pissed off at him. Since he showed them the damning texts on Wells’ phone, they have both been all over him to turn it over to the police.

But Marcus couldn’t do that until he knew more, until Echo’s contacts figured out the exact connection between Thelonious and Jake’s death. For all they knew, Wells was just lashing out at his father after he got cut off and Clarke cut all ties to him. He couldn’t risk upsetting Thelonious if this turned out to be nothing. Thelonious knew too much… and could destroy all of them if he wanted.

So, Marcus had to act like he was skeptical of the texts as Roan and Echo screamed at him, demanding they turn him in… even though Marcus had the creeping suspicion that Thelonious was behind Jake’s death. Jake’s murder never sat well with Marcus. There was no resolution, no closure. Someone made sure of that. He had always assumed it was Abby’s family, but it could have been the Jaha’s. And it would make a lot more sense. Abby’s family invested a lot in Jake, and went to a lot of effort to get him into the family. Whereas Thelonious and Jake were almost always in direct conflict with each other, especially once Jake announced plans to run for office.

Marcus took a look around the room, noticing that all five of his interns looked more rested than earlier… no doubt because Emori’s case got put on hold while they performed a second autopsy. Poor kids had no idea that Marcus was about to ruin their week… again.

“Good morning,” he announced, before sitting on top of the center table. The small chatter within the lecture hall ceased as all the students turned to look at him. “Today, I’m deviating away from our syllabus,” he explained, and noticed an annoyed look on Bellamy’s face. He knew what this meant… that they had another case. “We’re going to talk about sex.”

Then, he heard a chuckle from the back row, glancing up to see Murphy covering his mouth. Marcus rolled his eyes, before resuming. “What does sex have to do with criminal law, you ask? Everything. It drives most criminal behavior. Discovering a spouse had an affair is one of the leading causes of murder… especially with my clients. What kind of defense works best in this kind of situation?”

Raven raised her hand quickly, still determined to steal the trophy back from Monty, he noticed. As they got closer and closer to finals week, Monty and Raven had become more ravenous in their attempts to impress Marcus, which he appreciated since it yielded results from them. But the other three… seemed resigned to studying for the exam. Murphy was distracted, as always. And while Clarke and Bellamy were usually quite competitive with each other, for some reason, that stopped. They worked together more, which produced good results on its own, of course… but the drive to beat each other had dissipated, which Marcus did not understand.

“Label the murder as a crime of passion,” Raven explained, and Marcus nodded for her to sit down.

“Yes, the heat of the moment kind of argument is your best bet, especially when you know your client is guilty,” he explained, and he noticed Clarke’s lips twitch slightly. She had the same frustrated look that Bellamy had when he figured out there was a new case. “However, this strategy might not work if the prosecution can paint your client as a sexual deviant. At that point, you’re screwed. Juries love to convict the promiscuous. For class tomorrow, I want a short essay from all of you about how to navigate defense strategies with an allegedly promiscuous client. My interns, stay behind.”

The students all shuffled out, and Marcus checked his phone. No texts from Echo or Roan… which he should have suspected.

“I take it our new case isn’t a simple breaking and entering?” Murphy joked, and Marcus narrowed his eyes at him.

“We’re looking at involuntary manslaughter at best,” Marcus explained, as the others quickly gathered around him. “Our client’s name is Lorelei Tsing. The victim died while having sex with her,” he explained, ignoring how Monty immediately blushed at those words.

“There has got to be more to this than that,” Raven huffed, as Marcus leaned back and thought about the must concise way to explain the case.

“Tsing runs a healing center that is frequently used for…” Marcus trailed off, pissed that Echo wasn’t here to just hand them the information packets so he didn’t have to have this talk with the kids.

“You can just say sex parties,” Clarke interrupted, reading off her phone. Marcus raised an eyebrow at her, urging her to keep reading off her phone. “So, the guy that died had a heart attack at one of her parties while Tsing allegedly had rough sex with him. And the media is slut shaming the hell out of her.”

Everyone but Murphy and Monty were reacting appropriately, so Marcus turned so he wouldn’t have to look at their embarrassed faces. “She allegedly fed him a nitroglycerin pill beforehand, which is not uncommon for her to do. But she didn’t know that he had also taken Viagra prior to attending, which caused him to have a heart attack. One member of her little… club… has been called to the stand and painted her as an aggressive dominant… which is exactly what the jury needs to flip to the guilty verdict.”

 

_Roan_

 

He had been doing his best to stay in his office as much as possible, especially when Kane was in the house. He was beyond angry about that damn phone. Kane had the one thing that could free Emori immediately, and he refused to a thing about it… all to protect Thelonious Jaha.

Roan had already tried explaining that there wasn’t much Jaha could do to them, especially since the Kingsley’s were far more terrifying than the Jaha’s. But Marcus refused to see reason, shut them all down… saying that he was in charge here. When Kane left to head over to the DA’s office, Roan finally emerged from his office.

“Please tell me at least you found someone who would testify,” Echo groaned to one of the kids as Roan descended the stairs. They were absolutely screwed on this particular case. No one wanted to go on the record and admit they were a member of one of Arkadia’s most exclusive sex clubs. Not even if it meant keeping Tsing out of jail.

“No, I’m moving on to the next one, but this was on the way, so here’s my notes,” Clarke huffed, and Roan started moving much quicker down the stairs. He had hardly gotten to speak to Clarke since she found out about Ontari. It was a lot of screaming phone calls and her not answering her door when he stopped by.

“Anything interesting about this one?” Echo asked, as Roan stepped into the living room. Clarke glanced up at him, before her expression hardened.

“Just another bored husband looking for someone to screw while his wife is out of town,” Clarke snapped, before looking back at Echo. “I’ll keep you updated on the next one.”

Clarke turned around, brushing past Roan toward the front door. Echo shot him a warning look, but Roan didn’t care. He followed after Clarke.

“Are you going to talk to me like an adult?” he snapped, as soon as the door was shut behind him.

“No, I think I’m good,” Clarke responded, not even turning around to look at him. He jogged up to her. She opened her car door, and he slammed it shut before she could get away from this conversation. “Okay, let’s talk. You have a wife and think your sob story justifies you lying to me,” Clarke said, leaning against her car.

“I apologized for lying to you,” he pointed out, and Clarke cocked her head to the side.

“Yes, while simultaneously going off on a rant about how you thought I of all people would understand how trapped you are, right?” she snapped, and he pressed his lips together in frustration. “I mean, that’s what you think, right? That my life is just as fucked up as yours, and so I’ll be okay with the bullshit you threw at me?”

“That’s not what I said,” he snapped, furious that Clarke was twisting his words around like that. “My point was that you come from a similar family who tried to do this to you. That you of all people could understand why I married Ontari and how messed up of a situation I’m in.”

“Except, I don’t understand,” she sighed. “I got away from that. I’m not going to make the same mistake as you… certainly not for anything as stupid as a trust fund.”

He blinked a few times, not sure he heard that correctly. “Excuse me?”

“You sold your future away for financial security. Ontari gets the political career she wants, and you still get your inheritance. And now you have to live with that choice, and continue to delude yourself into thinking your divorce will ever actually go through,” Clarke spat.

“You really think you’re gonna end up any different?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her. She opened her mouth to protest, but he interrupted her. “Maybe money isn’t your price. But one day, you’re going to need something from your family. Literally no one else in your family has the kind of freedom you think you’re going to have.”

“I’ve separated from my family. They can’t affect my life anymore.”

“You still think that? Even after they murdered Lexa?” he asked, and he immediately regretted it. “Clarke, I’m sorry. That was too far,” he backtracked, shaking his head.

“Roan,” Clarke growled, and he swallowed, bracing himself for whatever blonde fury was coming his way. “Nothing could compel me to go back to them, not after that.” Then, she pushed him away from her car so she could open the door.

“Clarke, I didn’t mean that. Please—”

“I’m not your mistress, Roan,” she spat, and he clenched his eyes shut. “You lied to me. You let me think you were different. And I’m willing to bet your prenup has an infidelity clause. If you keep harassing me, I’ll give Ontari whatever she needs to take everything from you.”

“Clarke,” he pleaded, before she turned back to look at him with a murderous gaze.

“Did you really think this would end any other way?” she growled, and he clenched his jaw. “You had every opportunity to tell me the truth.  I told you everything. I trusted you.”

“I’m sorry,” he begged, as Clarke sat in her car and slammed the door shut. He stood there for a few minutes, watching her pull out of the driveway.

After a while, he went back inside, seeing a curious look on Echo’s face.

“I told you not to screw her,” Echo muttered, and Roan plopped down next to her. “Your other little conquests couldn’t ruin your life like Clarke could.”

“She’s not going to. She’s just going to hate me,” he huffed, shaking his head at his past self. But he knew Clarke wasn’t going to be vindictive as long as Roan kept his distance… but keeping his distance was going to be the hardest part. He missed her. She understood him in a way that most really couldn’t. While Marcus and Echo knew all about his childhood and what it was like to be the son of Nia Kingsley, neither of them could fully understand how that could traumatize a person. But Clarke did.

“Well, back to important issues, what are we going to do about Jaha?” she asked, and he turned to look at her.

“We can’t do anything. Kane has the evidence, not us,” he muttered, noticing how Echo’s lips twitched at that statement.

“We’ll never get rid of him legally. He has too many friends,” she sighed, and Roan jerked his head up, narrowing his eyes at her.

“What are you suggesting?” he accused, and Echo just shrugged, looking back through Clarke’s notes. “You promised Marcus you wouldn’t do that again.”

“Not saying I would,” she huffed, and Roan bit his lip… knowing this couldn’t end well.

 

_Raven_

 

The worst part about this assignment was getting to hear about all the wild sex everyone but her was getting these days. Every person she approached raved about the gatherings, listing off details that Raven couldn’t even comprehend. Of course, none of them were willing to actually testify on Lorelei’s behalf.

The only lead she had was from the last person she interviewed, who let it slip that another member of the club, Lucy, used to have a thing with the murder victim and got jealous whenever he went off with Lorelei. So that was the next person Raven and Clarke went to visit. Of course, Clarke got pulled away for a phone call with her mom, leaving Raven alone with Lucy.

“You know, if Lorelei goes to jail for this, that will be an end for the gatherings. No more crazy weekends,” Raven suggested, although no one else had fallen for it so far… but it was worth a try.

“Look, it’s not like I want it shut down. But this is a violation of the anonymity agreement we all signed. And I’m not about to out myself as some kind of deviant in court. My company has a strict morality clause,” she huffed, crossing her arms. “Besides, we don’t need Lorelei for these kinds of things.”

“What does that mean?” Raven asked, furrowing her brows.

“It’s easier when she’s around, since she knows how to throw it all together. But without her, we’re still throwing the parties. Hell, we have one tonight,” Lucy explained, before glancing over Raven’s shoulder. “Actually, you could come if you’re interested,” she said, glancing back at Raven. “Just make sure to bring your friend,” she smirked, and Raven looked back at Clarke… realizing that’s who Lucy meant.

“She your type or something?” Raven teased, but Lucy just bit her lip, eyeing Clarke with interest.

“Mine and my new boyfriend’s. Hope I see you two tonight,” she winked, before turning around to go back inside.

Raven gestured for Clarke to get back in the car, thinking this over. As soon as Clarke got off the phone, Raven decided to work through this out loud.

“Cards on the table, Lucy just invited us both to one of their parties tonight,” Raven blurted out, and Clarke started laughing. “Yeah, it’s because I’m pretty sure she wants to sleep with you.”

“I’m sure she wants to bang you too. Maybe that’ll be how we destress over this case,” Clarke teased, poking Raven in the arm.

“Nope. She was pretty clear about you, and low key wants you to have a threesome with her and her boyfriend,” Raven said, and Clarke bit her lip to keep from laughing. “I think we should go.”

“What?” Clarke shouted with an amused look on her face.

“One of the others told me that Lucy was really jealous of Lorelei. That would give her motive. She had the same access to the drug that gave that guy a heart attack. So we need to go tonight.”

“What? You want me to sleep with a potential murderer?” Clarke asked in disbelief.

“No…” Raven trailed off, as she tried to come up with the most tactful way to proposition Clarke. “These things require you to lock up your phones beforehand, so there are no photos taken, you know? So, you could distract Lucy, flirt a little bit, while I go back there and see if I can steal some evidence from her phone.”

Clarke sat there in silence for a few minutes and thought this over, while Raven nervously tapped on the wheel. There were probably a lot of things Clarke was willing to do for a case, but she probably never considered attending a sex party would be one of them.

“We need to bring Murphy too, then,” Clarke finally decided, and Raven let out a sigh of relief. “I’ll text him right now, have him meet us at our apartment so we can all go together. It would look weird if I just showed up alone, right?”

“Right, smart move,” Raven agreed, as she changed directions so she could head straight to Clarke’s apartment.

The two of them spent over an hour deciding on what to wear before there was a knock on Clarke’s door. As Clarke pulled on another dress, Raven went to answer the door… leading to a very angry Bellamy Blake storming into the apartment, followed by an apologetic Murphy.

“You two cannot be serious about this plan!” Bellamy snapped, and Raven glared at Murphy.

“Raven, is this enough cleavage?” Clarke asked, stepping out of her bedroom. “Oh, hi guys,” she said with a smirk, waving at Murphy and Bellamy.

“Nope. Go for the one that you can wear without a bra,” Raven suggested.

“No, Clarke,” Bellamy snapped, as Clarke rested against her doorframe. He stared at her for half a second, before glancing back at Raven with a flustered look on his face. “This is a ridiculous plan.”

“We’re literally on a case where a guy got fucked to death. There are no wrong answers here,” Clarke teased, as Bellamy ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

“I can’t believe you talked her into sleeping with a suspected murderer just so you could find information for Kane,” he huffed.

“Okay, best case scenario, we flirt a little bit and I pretend to get all shy and flustered and get away. Worst case scenario, I get some allegedly very good sex,” Clarke joked, and Raven burst out laughing. Clarke went back into her room to change into the other dress.

“Honestly, she needs it,” Raven agreed, and Murphy snorted.

“How are you all okay with this?” Bellamy groaned, raising an eyebrow at Murphy.

“Because we know that if Kane loses this case, he’ll take it all out on us. Plus, if Clarke is fine with it, what’s the harm?” Raven asked, cocking her head to the side. “And all I need is like half an hour. Murphy, you’re still coming right?”

“Yeah, wouldn’t miss this,” Murphy chuckled, and Bellamy let out another groan.

“Okay, but I’m coming too,” Bellamy decided, and now it was Raven’s turn to groan.

“Clarke, tell Bellamy he can’t come,” Raven shouted, before Clarke opened her door, in a skin tight red dress.

“Bellamy, if you are going to be all negative about the plan, you can’t come,” Clarke sighed, and Raven glanced over at Bellamy who was now looking down at the ground with his hands in his pockets.

“Okay, well you guys need a fourth person anyway. One to stick with Clarke and make sure she doesn’t get dragged into an orgy…”

“You say that like I wouldn’t love to be dragged into an orgy,” Clarke teased, and Bellamy’s head jerked up to look at her.

“And another person to keep watch for Raven,” he continued, clenching his jaw slightly.

“I call Raven,” Murphy said, before reaching out for a high five. Raven smirked before slapping his palm with hers.

“That leaves you on keep Clarke out of an orgy duty,” Raven teased, and Bellamy rolled his eyes. “The much harder job,” Raven teased, wiggling her eyebrows at Clarke.

“And if you guys get done early, you can join us and help me make fun of how awkward Bellamy is going to be,” Clarke joked, before walking back in her room.

“What makes you think I’m going to be awkward?” he shouted, and Raven raised an eyebrow at him.

“Because you have your shirt buttoned all the way to the top and really don’t like the idea of Clarke using sex to get our client free,” Raven teased, and Clarke came back in, wearing the heels they agreed on.

“Yeah, you had no problem when Raven was doing it, no offense,” Clarke reminded, and Raven had to nod at that. She grabbed her purse, before gesturing toward the door. And Raven was about 95% sure Bellamy was going to mess this up somehow.

 

_Clarke_

 

“I’m gonna need you to take a deep breath for me,” Clarke teased as she linked her arm with his.

“I am perfectly fine,” Bellamy muttered as they slowly walked into the room. Clarke glanced at one of the clocks, noting that they had to keep Lucy distracted until at least 9:30 for this to work.

“Maybe they’ll go easy on you, since it’s your first time,” she whispered, noticing a blush creep into Bellamy’s cheeks as he turned his head to look back at her.

“Who says this is my first time?” he deadpanned, and Clarke had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. “In all seriousness, are you okay with this? We can leave right now if you’re not.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she reminded him, but thought it was sweet that he was concerned. It wasn’t like Clarke was a virgin or anything. She was quite adventurous in college, and wasn’t opposed to the occasional three-way. Besides, she needed a rebound after the Roan disaster. Although, she never thought her first opportunity to rebound would be at a sex party where Bellamy was basically babysitting her.

She glanced around the room, trying to locate Lucy. She had only gotten a brief look at her earlier, and she would probably be very differently dressed at this event than she was earlier.

“God, I would have killed to know about these things back in undergrad,” Bellamy mumbled, and Clarke rolled her eyes before leading him toward the bar. The two of them were going to need a drink if they were going to make it half an hour at this party.

She kept an eye out for Lucy as they drank, and spotted her across the room looking at Clarke and Bellamy. “That’s her,” Clarke whispered, and Bellamy turned to look. Then, Bellamy grabbed Clarke’s hand, which startled her a bit… until she remembered their plan.

They had agreed in the car that they would be a couple if anyone asked… that way if things escalated too much, he could pull them out of it, or vice versa, claiming to be jealous or uncomfortable or something. Safe words and signals were established, backstories were discussed… but it must not have registered completely with Clarke until this moment.

She and Bellamy had a strange friendship, to say the least. A month ago, they basically hated each other. But he had become nicer to her, had seemed to know something was up with her without her having to explain the Roan situation. She would frequently find herself engaged in long text conversations with him, or purposefully partnering up with him on cases. He still called her “princess” every chance he got, but it didn’t have the bite it used to.

“Clarke, I’m so glad Raven passed on my invitation to you,” Lucy said, before leaning over to kiss Clarke on the cheek. She immediately felt Bellamy’s grip tighten on her hand. She squeezed back to reassure him she’s fine.

“Oh, this is my boyfriend, Bellamy,” Clarke introduced, as Lucy gave him a once over.

“Are you a law student like Clarke?” she asked as the man Clarke figured was her boyfriend came over.

“Yeah, that’s actually how we met,” Bellamy replied.

“This is my boyfriend, Bryce,” she introduced, and Clarke had to admit he wasn’t bad looking either. They were both pretty tan, her hair a bit darker than his. All things considered, Raven could have done worse when it came to propositioning Clarke. “Do you guys want to come sit with us? We’d love to get to know you two better.”

After agreeing, they followed them over to the corner of the room, and Clarke took a quick glance at the clock, realizing she still had twenty-five minutes to keep them busy. Bellamy kept his arm tight around Clarke, and one hand on her thigh. She knew that this was just part of their cover, that Bellamy was just trying to look like her boyfriend. But there was something so possessive about how he was touching her… and Clarke found it sexy in the most unnerving way. She tried to snap out of it, blaming it on the sexy vibe of the party or her drink… but the thought wasn’t leaving her alone.

“So, you two have never been to an event like this?” Bryce asked, with his hand sliding higher up Lucy’s thigh.

“No, never. We’re usually pretty private,” Bellamy answered, and his lips were just inches away from her ear.

“That’s such a shame,” Lucy replied, glancing at both of them lustfully, and Clarke immediately felt Bellamy pull her closer to him. She knew the two of them were getting closer to being in the territory where something might happen… and Clarke wasn’t sure how to delay. Bryce and Lucy were being very up front about what they were up for, and if Bellamy and Clarke didn’t play along, they would likely move on, or go back to check their phones like they had seen a lot of people doing tonight.

“You know, there’s a room available right over there. We would love to show you guys the ropes around here,” Bryce said with a sly grin, and Clarke could feel Bellamy’s eyes on her, waiting for her to issue the safe word. She winked at Bryce, before leaning back to whisper into Bellamy’s ear.

“We still have twenty minutes. We can’t let them catch Raven,” Clarke reminded quietly, and she could see that Bellamy was not happy with this answer.

“God, at first I was bummed that she showed up with her boyfriend, but they are so adorable,” Lucy said, and Clarke could see Bryce sucking just below her jaw out of the corner of her eye.

“I have an idea, but it’s going to be really awkward,” he whispered back, and Clarke nodded, leaning back into him. Nothing could make the night any more awkward.

“Where is the room?” Bellamy asked, and the two of them jumped off the couch excitedly. They followed them, and Bellamy leaned down to whisper in her ear, “We’re gonna play the shy and nervous card and ask to watch first. I have a feeling they’ll be into that.”

Clarke swallowed, realizing that she was just going to have to sit there, likely with Bellamy still all over her, as a couple has sex just feet away from them. She took a deep breath as Bellamy explained their nervousness to them… and of course, he was right. They were into it… a little too into it.

They got right to taking off each other’s clothes, as Bellamy pulled Clarke back into his chest. “We can handle this for twenty minutes, right?” he whispered right in her ear, and Clarke nodded… while trying to ignore the weird feeling she got when his lips got that close to her ear… or how warm his hand felt on her thigh.

She tried to stay focused on what Lucy and Bryce were up to, especially because they both looked absolutely gorgeous naked. But she couldn’t… because she was too distracted by Bellamy’s breathing right on her neck. She wasn’t sure how she had never noticed how good he smelled before tonight, but now it was killing her.

By the time Bryce was kissing his way up Lucy’s thighs, Clarke was pressing hers together, trying to get some kind of friction. She knew that Bellamy was watching Clarke closely, since that’s all he had been doing all night. He made it very clear that he wasn’t a fan of this plan and wanted to make sure that she didn’t feel uncomfortable… but now Clarke was uncomfortable that he was going to figure out just how turned on she was by all of this. This would have been one thing if it was just Clarke in here. But Bellamy was just right there, he smelled so good, and all Clarke wanted to do was tug him by those messy curls of his and feel his lips on her neck.

“Fifteen more minutes,” Bellamy whispered, and Clarke gripped his thigh without thinking. She pulled her hand away quickly, realizing how awkward that would probably make him feel. But then, she felt his hand pull her hand back on his thigh, and she swallowed.

She kept her eyes on Lucy, which was easy considering how many moans were slipping out of her mouth. She wasn’t sure when it happened, but Clarke realized that she wasn’t just leaning into Bellamy anymore. She was basically pressing herself all the way into his chest, feeling his labored breathing in rhythm with her own.

She reminded herself that they both agreed that whatever happened at this party stayed at this party. They weren’t going to judge each other for whatever went down, and they certainly weren’t going to tell anyone. It was an easy thing to agree to when neither of them wanted anything to happen. But now… she felt Bellamy’s arousal pressed against her, she was getting more turned on by his breathing on her neck than the actual sex happening just feet away from them, and Clarke couldn’t logic her way out of wanting Bellamy right now. He was just right there… and he felt so _good_ up against her.

Before she could reason with herself, Clarke found herself pushing back into Bellamy, grinding into him. His hand found her waist, holding her tighter against him. She heard Lucy start screaming Bryce’s name, which almost jerked her out of the trance she was in with Bellamy… but then Clarke felt Bellamy’s other hand start to slide up her thigh, and she began to forget all about Lucy and Bryce.

“Should I stop, princess?” he whispered right in her ear, his lips ghosting her lobe as he spoke. She swallowed, cursing how turned on she got just from him calling her that. She shook her head, and his hand immediately travelled up her dress. She leaned back farther, resting her head on his shoulder, as his fingers ghosted the outside of her panties.

She really thought she was going to jerk out of this moment, and realize that this was _Bellamy_ that was touching her like this… but she never did. Instead, she spread her legs for him and let his hand slip into her soaking panties.

She bit her lip as his fingers dove in and out of her, keeping her eyes fixed on Lucy as she bobbed on Bryce’s cock. She started imagining her own lips on Bellamy’s cock, wondering if she could even fit it in her mouth. Then again, that’s not really where she wanted his cock at the moment.

Then, she felt Bellamy’s other hand slide up her waist. She arched her back, pressing her chest out… knowing that he already had a pretty good view and Clarke wore the dress that best showed her cleavage.

“Fuck, Clarke,” he murmured as his hand squeezed her breast over the fabric. Then, he added another finger, and Clarke reached back to grip onto Bellamy’s curls. His lips immediately found her neck, as he pressed searing kisses to her throat.

She tried to remind herself that this was all just because of the party they were at, that ordinarily she would never be doing this with Bellamy. But it didn’t work… because, fuck. She wanted Bellamy, which was wrong for so many reasons.

She started making a list of reasons. He was an ass. She worked with him. She just ended things with Roan. He was an ass. They were only just now becoming friends. He kept calling her “princess.” And, most importantly, he was an ass.

But Clarke forgot all those reasons as she clenched around his fingers. Her eyes slammed shut and she bit her lip to keep from moaning any more than she already had. She flooded onto his fingers, gripping hard on his thigh to brace herself.

 

_Bellamy_

 

He was a little more than flustered when it was his cue to make an excuse for them to leave. They had already stayed far longer than what they agreed to, and Bellamy was thankful that he had told Raven to just meet them at Kane’s after so that she didn’t come looking for him and Clarke.

Lucy and Bryce didn’t seem to be offended when they left. In fact, it seemed like they were pretty happy with the experience. To be honest, Bellamy really wasn’t paying much attention to them. It was hard to when Clarke’s warm body was pressed against his as she grinded against him.

He wasn’t sure what took over Clarke, but he didn’t mind. Fuck, it was something he had been wanting ever since he walked in on her and Roan. And it was way better than he had expected. Her moans were much hotter when they were right in his ear and just for him.

And the face Clarke made when Bellamy licked his fingers after was an image he would go back to time and time again.

They didn’t say anything to each other as they walked back into the party, but they both looked more disheveled than they did when they first walked in. Bellamy kept a hand on Clarke’s back as he guided her toward the exit. But Clarke tugged him in a different direction.

“Clarke, what are you doing?” Bellamy asked as she pulled him into another room. She shut the door behind them, before pushing Bellamy up against it. He swallowed, as Clarke started undoing his pants. He knew he should probably object. What happened earlier was already crossing a line.

He opened his mouth to remind her that they needed to get to Raven, but no words came out. Instead, he watched as Clarke dropped to her knees in front of him, pulling his cock out. He couldn’t take his eyes off her wide blue eyes as she looked back up at him, her hand slowly stroking his cock.

He bit his lip, watching her wet her lips as she eyed his cock. Her small, pale hands looked gorgeous on his cock. She leaned forward, sucking the head of his cock as her hand kept stroking up and down his shaft. His mind immediately went back to the day he walked in on her, how he immediately started fantasizing about her mouth on his cock… and now, here she was… wearing a revealing red dress that gave him a perfect view of her gorgeous breasts as she ran her tongue over his cock. His fingers immediately found her hair, pulling her closer to where he desperately needed her.

She sank her mouth as far as she could go, which earned an involuntary groan from Bellamy. Then, she started licking up his shaft, and Bellamy was fairly certain that his princess was trying to kill him. It was like she had seen into his filthiest fantasy involving her.

Clarke hummed around his cock as she bobbed her head up and down. Bellamy struggled not to grind into her, to let her have control… but fuck it was hard, especially with those blue eyes gleaming up at him innocently as she dragged ever swear word he knew from his lips.

She pulled away briefly to catch her breath, and her hand picked up the pace around him. “You gonna come for me, Bellamy?” Clarke breathlessly whispered as she glanced up at him. His cock twitched at the words, and he knew Clarke noticed by the gorgeous smirk on her face. She pressed an innocent little kiss to the head of his cock, without breaking eye contact, and Bellamy had to struggle not to come immediately.

His hips couldn’t help but move a little as Clarke started bobbing up and down his cock again. He knew he only had moments before he fell apart in her gorgeous mouth. She felt too good and looked too intoxicating. He was surprised he made it this long. And he swears the room got blurry as he came undone for her.

He couldn’t get his thoughts back together once Clarke’s lips left his cock. He leaned his head back against the door, trying to figure out how the hell he and Clarke got to this point. After a few minutes, Bellamy tucked himself back into his pants and Clarke tried to make herself look a little less disheveled.

They didn’t talk as they went to retrieve their phones, and they didn’t talk on the walk to his car. After a few minutes of driving in awkward silence, Bellamy couldn’t take it anymore. “I know we said that what happens at that party stays at that party…” he started, not sure how to go about talking about this.

“Yeah, that was the plan,” Clarke said sternly, and Bellamy stole a glance over at her, before fixing his eyes back on the road. “Look, things got heated. It was a weird situation. Let’s just pretend it never happened.”

Bellamy nodded along, even though his brain was screaming otherwise. There was no way he could go back to the way things were, especially not now that he knew just how _good_ Clarke felt. And it wasn’t just that. He had been struggling with his complicated feelings for a while now. She wasn’t the entitled princess he made her out to be. Hell, the girl had cut off all ties to her family essentially. And she only used her name when she absolutely had to.

He had been watching her closely, noting how passionate she got about the law and getting small glimpses into what kind of good she wanted to do with her degree. He had seen her at three in the morning when she had no makeup on and wanted to murder anyone that talked to her. He had seen how loving she got while drunk. He had seen her laugh so hard that she snorted. He had seen her break down in her car when she thought that everyone was busy in Kane’s house. He had seen the excited face Clarke made when she figured something out.

He should have known that wanting her was going to be inevitable after seeing all that. He couldn’t just pretend that tonight didn’t happen. Not when it was everything he had been aching for.

They made the rest of the drive in silence, and Bellamy didn’t dare bring up the party again. The lights were still on at Kane’s house. They both got out of the car, and Clarke was wearing Bellamy’s jacket since she felt awkward about showing that much cleavage in the house that she worked in.

“Clarke, wait,” Bellamy said as he walked around the car. Clarke looked up at him in confusion, but didn’t move toward the house. Bellamy swallowed, trying to talk himself out of this. But, he couldn’t. So he gripped her face between his hands before crashing his lips onto hers.

She didn’t move for a moment, frozen by shock. But as soon as her lips started moving against his, Bellamy felt like his entire body was on fire. He backed her into his car, pressing his entire body against her as she moaned into his mouth. Her hands were clutching onto the collar of his shirt, pulling him toward her.

His tongue plunged into her mouth, searching desperately for hers, and he shuddered when their tongues met. She whimpered into his mouth, and Bellamy swallowed that gorgeous sound as his lips pressed harder into hers.

When he pulled away, he kept his hands on her face, holding her in place. She was catching her breath and so was he, and fuck, she looked gorgeous with her lips parted like that.

“You can go ahead and pretend that the rest of tonight didn’t happen, but that sure as hell did, Clarke,” Bellamy whispered, before pulling away. Clarke just stayed there, wordlessly gazing back at him in confusion. “Come on, we have work to do,” he reminded her before turning around and walking toward the house.

They didn’t say anything else as they walked back into the house. Bellamy noticed that Emori was sitting in the corner by the window. She gave him a strange look, and Bellamy raised an eyebrow at her. Clarke had already gotten herself back together and was telling Raven that it wasn’t as easy to leave as they had planned.

“I guess you had a fun night,” Emori teased, and Bellamy glanced out the window, realizing she had a perfect view of what just happened.

“Not a word to anyone else,” he warned, and Emori rolled her eyes.

 

_Echo_

 

The intel Raven got was so good. In fact, Echo was pissed that Marcus insisted that Monty kept the trophy considering how brilliantly Raven delivered this time. Monty did literally nothing to contribute to this case except piss off the club’s members by being judgmental. But Raven’s plan to get Bellamy and Clarke to distract Lucy… genius.

Echo couldn’t help but smirk as Marcus brought Lucy to the stand, bringing up the evidence that the kids spent all night digging for that proved that Lucy knew he was taking Viagra, a fact that hadn’t been proven for Lorelei yet.

Lucy’s entire little affair got played out for the jury, who was eating it up. Who would convict the lover over the jilted ex? Lorelei looked like a fucking saint by the time Marcus was done with her.

“Hey, I’m sorry he didn’t give you the trophy for this. You deserved it,” Echo had to say to Raven, and Raven looked genuinely proud of herself.

“Thanks,” she replied, and Echo nodded in response.

As the kids all filed out to rush off to their afternoon lecture, Roan huffed beside her.

“We need to hash things out with Marcus,” he sighed, and Echo groaned. She wasn’t even close to being done with how pissed off she was with him. Jaha was a dangerous man, and they could all get really screwed over if they kept helping him out. And it was one thing when his crimes were reserved only for his business ventures. It was another when they suspected him of one murder, potentially two.

“There you two are,” Marcus said as he walked up to them. Echo raised her eyebrows at him, waiting for some kind of apology, but got none. “I need to talk to you about something before you go back to the house.”

“Well?” Roan snapped.

Marcus let out a breath, before checking behind him to see if anyone was nearby. “It’s about Thelonious,” he started, and Echo let herself hope for just a moment that Marcus had come to his senses. “Earlier today, someone attacked him in his home. He’s already filed a police report, but he’s a little rattled.”

“Why the fuck should we care?” Echo growled, and Marcus shot her a warning look.

“Because I’ve invited him to come stay with me until they get answers about why he was attacked. He isn’t safe,” Marcus replied, and Echo’s entire body tensed up. Jaha was going to be in that house… while they were trying Emori’s case… the same house that had the phone that would put him away for murder.

“No,” Echo snapped, and Roan put his hand on her shoulder to steady her.

“You can’t just do that. We’re working Wells’ case in that house,” Roan reminded, and Echo forced herself to take a deep breath.

“He knows boundaries. It’ll just be where he sleeps at night. I’ve set ground rules. Just trust me,” Marcus explained.

“I quit,” Echo blurted out, and Marcus’ head snapped to her in confusion. “This is too much. I’m done,” she muttered, before picking her purse back up and darting down the courthouse steps.

“Echo!” Marcus shouted, chasing after her. She turned around to face him, fighting every urge she had to punch him right in the face.

“He murdered Jake Griffin, Clarke’s father. He probably murdered his own son to keep that quiet. You made me bury the evidence that would prove that, remember?” she growled, stepping forward and pushing him backwards.

“Echo, you need to take a breath,” Roan said, separating the two of them. Echo’s furious eyes darted up to Roan, because she couldn’t believe he could stand by Marcus’ side after this. Even he had to have a line he wouldn’t cross for Kane.

“No, you need to get your head out of your ass. You two are actively helping that horrible man get away with two murders,” she growled, before Marcus started hushing her. She broke out of Roan’s grip, before turning around to storm toward her car.

She shook her head as her mind was flooded with every horrible thing she did for Marcus’ favorite client. She had destroyed lives to protect that man. She had helped put innocent people behind bars to protect that man… all because Marcus asked her to… because he saved her once and she felt like she owed him everything for it.

But she was done. Even she had line she wouldn’t cross for Kane.

 

**Two Weeks Later**

 

_Monty_

 

Raven and Clarke were quickly pulling the bags out of the trunk in a panic, as Murphy started throwing them into the dumpster. Monty felt himself start to shake, remembering that parts of a man’s body were in those bags.

He forced himself to take a deep breath, reminding himself that when this was over, he could go home and sleep. He could pretend all of this was a dream… that he was just an innocent witness to.

“Guys,” Bellamy shouted, and Monty jerked his head up to see Bellamy carrying the trophy to Clarke and Raven. “A piece of it broke off,” he said in a panic, and Monty clenched his eyes shut.

“Maybe it broke off earlier. Monty, was it broken when you got it?” Clarke asked shakily as she ran over to him.

“Don’t be stupid, Clarke,” Raven snapped, and Monty forced his eyes open. “It broke off when Jaha was struck with it.”

Clarke ran to the bags on the ground, pulling them open, and Murphy and Raven did the same. Monty swallowed, realizing that if the broken fragment of the trophy was on the body, they were fucked. The trophy had been cleaned off, meaning it couldn’t be traced back to tonight’s murder. But that fragment… it wouldn’t have been cleaned off. It would have had Jaha’s blood along with all their DNA on it… especially Monty’s and Raven’s since they were the two to handle it the most in the last twenty-four hours.

“No, no,” Clarke cried, tearing open another bag. Monty leapt up, running to the dumpster to pull out the ones that Murphy had already thrown in.

All five of them tore apart the bags, searching for the missing piece… but it wasn’t there.

“Maybe it’s at the house,” Murphy suggested, as Clarke buried her face into Bellamy’s chest with a sob. “We can keep an eye out next time we’re there. It’ll be fine.”

Monty glanced over at Raven, who looked like she was about to start hyperventilating.

“Guys, we have to go,” Bellamy said gravely, and Murphy and Bellamy started putting the bags back together. Clarke rushed over to Monty’s side, and Monty buried his face into her shoulder.

“We’re gonna get caught. We’re all going to jail,” he murmured. Raven walked over to them, shakily resting her head on Clarke’s other shoulder.

“We’re going to be fine,” Bellamy reassured before tossing another bag back into the dumpster.

“We did everything we were supposed to,” Clarke whispered, resting her head on Monty’s… but he could hear in her voice that she was crying too.

“We killed a man, Clarke,” Raven whimpered, and Monty suddenly realized that he wasn’t just an innocent bystander anymore. He had just as much to lose as the rest of them.


	8. She Wasn't Here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, we're getting closer to the murder. Woo!
> 
> This chapter and the next one are going to be kind of intense, since they're building up to the chapter that will finally explain how it all happened. A lot of fighting, a lot of people saying things they don't really mean because they're stressed out. 
> 
> No smut this time around. Sorry dudes. 
> 
> Also, I'm expecting to get the next update done pretty quickly. I want to get 9 and 10 up before Thanksgiving. 9 will probably be up late tomorrow night, in all honestly. 
> 
> Thanks for all the comments! I'm glad you guys liked last chapter. This one is more Bellarke angst than anything, though. But it's building to something good, I promise.

_Marcus_

 

He shakily sat down at his desk, trying to get his thoughts back together. He couldn’t ignore what happened. Especially not now that Thelonious was gone. He poured himself a glass of scotch, before dialing his phone.

He waited as it rang, knowing it would likely go straight to voicemail. And when it did, Marcus almost felt relieved. He wasn’t sure he could handle it if the phone was picked up.

“Thelonious, it’s me. I know things were said earlier. But you need to come back,” Marcus whispered into the phone, his voice sounding more strangled than it had all night. It was hard enough telling Abby. But this conversation… it was too much. “I’m still going to the police tomorrow. I can’t live with myself if I cover this up for you. But you…” he kept talking, before sucking in a large breath. “You need to come back and I’ll do the best I can for you. I can get you a new lawyer, I can get the charges reduced. I’ll take care of you, like I always do,” he pleaded, but he knew there was no point. He hung up, not sure if there was anything else he could say.

Then, he dialed Echo.

“Did you call to start screaming at me again?” she slurred, and he could tell she had been drinking. He didn’t blame her. After the horrible things he said to her all those hours ago, it was no wonder she was getting drunk. He crossed a line.

“Please tell me you’re with Jaha,” he pleaded.

“No, I’m alone in my apartment.”

“He’s gone, Echo. I don’t know where he went. I confronted him about all of it, and I said I was going to turn him in. He was supposed to stay at the house, but he’s not here.”

“Take a breath,” she replied, and he was grateful that Echo was able to stay calm. He wasn’t sure he could make it through the night without her or Roan. They were the closest things he had to friends now. He had pushed Jake away all those years ago, and now he’s dead. Thelonious is gone, and a murderer. And Abby… despite what happened at her house, he wasn’t about to say they were friends yet.

Echo and Roan were his family. And he needed them.

 

**Three Days Earlier**

 

_Raven_

 

Bellamy and Murphy were already at the house by the time she got there. She glanced over their shoulders, realizing they were studying for their exams, not working on the case just yet. She sat down across from them, kicking her feet up onto the coffee table.

“How are you not panicked about next week?” Murphy asked, and Raven rolled her eyes. She wasn’t going to start panicking until she knew for sure that she wasn’t going to steal the trophy back from Monty. There was no reason to get worked up when she might not have to take the exam.

“We’ll all be fine,” she blew it off, as she grabbed her phone out of her bag. She noticed that Luna hadn’t texted her back… which was to be expected, she figured.

Clarke came in with a flustered look on her face, and Raven raised an eyebrow.

“What are you doing here?” Bellamy asked, and as Clarke pulled her coat off.

“Um,” she stuttered, glancing over at the couch where Bellamy and Murphy were, “I’m not sure. Kane told me to be here.”

“Yeah,” Kane said as he stepped out of his office. “I need you to be my Echo for the day.”

“Is she still sick?” Murphy asked, and Raven heard Roan scoff in the kitchen. She had a feeling that something more serious was going on with Echo, but neither Kane nor Roan let anything slip. Kane nodded.

“I thought I couldn’t go anywhere near Emori’s case?” Clarke asked, turning to face Kane.

“Desperate times. I trust you’ll keep any biases to yourself,” Kane snapped, before gesturing for Clarke to follow him into his office.

“Great, I’m fucked,” Emori muttered, and Raven jumped, not even noticing that she was in here. Then, Raven heard the door open again, followed by the sound of Monty tossing his stuff onto the corner chair.

“Aww, are you guys actually studying?” Monty teased, and Murphy snapped his head up to glare at him.

“The trophy isn’t a done deal just yet,” Raven reminded, and Monty raised an eyebrow at her.

“You find anything good enough so you can steal it from me?” Monty asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Don’t listen to him. He’s just pissed off that he didn’t get to come to the sex party with us,” Bellamy mumbled, and Raven leaned back and crossed her arms.

“Is that what your moody behavior has been all about?” she growled, recalling how distant he had been with all of them all week. “Okay, it was just supposed to be me and Clarke, and then Clarke suggested we get Murphy in as back up. Bellamy wasn’t even supposed to go!”

“What are you guys talking about?” Roan asked, stepping into the living room with a confused look on his face.

“You know how they solved the last case?” Monty started with an annoyed expression on his face. “The four of them went to that sex club party. Clarke and Bellamy distracted that Lucy chick while Raven and Murphy stole stuff off their phone. And you all left me out of it in a petty attempt to steal the trophy from me.”

“I mean, Raven didn’t get the trophy,” Bellamy pointed out, and Raven clenched her jaw. She still had no idea what Monty even did to earn the trophy. And her plan worked far more efficiently than anything Monty could have come up with. She was the most consistent intern. She deserved that damn trophy, and there was no way in hell she was going to take that final.

“You did what?” Roan snapped, and Raven jerked her head in his direction, realizing he looked pissed. At this moment, Kane and Clarke stepped out of his office, Clarke carrying a huge stack of paperwork. “Kane, did you know how they solved the last case?”

Kane burst out laughing, before looking at the interns. “Oh, come on,” Kane sighed, looking back at Roan’s unamused expression that was now more focused on Clarke. “You have to admit it was creative. No one got hurt.”

Clarke brushed past him to head upstairs, but Roan followed quickly after her, clearly pissed off about something. Raven rolled her eyes, before glancing up at Kane, waiting for her assignment for the day.

“I still don’t know why I was left out of that plan,” Monty murmured.

“Probably because you’re happily engaged, and no one wants a happily monogamous person at a sex party,” Bellamy muttered, and Raven glanced over at him, realizing that his words had more bite to them than normal. In fact, he looked straight up pissed off.

Marcus’ phone started ringing, and he headed back into his office.

“You okay?” Raven asked, but Bellamy waved her off.

“Reyes!” Roan shouted before storming back into the room. She glanced up at him nervously, as he shoved his phone in her face. She glanced at the article he had pulled up, realizing that a rumor about Emori’s relationship to Wells being romantic was now front-page news. “You said there was nothing that the reporters could dig up. That was your job,” he growled, and Raven’s heart started to pound.

“What the hell?” Kane shouted as he stormed back in. Clarke paced in quickly with a nervous expression on her face.

“What’s going on?” Emori asked nervously.

“Emori, did you ever have sex with Wells Jaha?” Kane snapped, and Emori glanced up at Clarke with a panicked look on her face.

“God, Raven, can you only do your job when you’re screwing your way to answers?” Roan snapped, and Raven jumped up angrily.

“How dare you,” she growled.

“Roan!” Clarke shouted, and everyone turned to look at a very pissed off Clarke Griffin. “First of all, there is no truth to the rumor that Emori and Wells were sleeping together. He was a virgin. Made that pact a long time ago and was very serious about it,” she clarified, walking slowly over toward Roan and Kane. “That slipping past Raven isn’t her fault because there is no evidence to prove it. Also, what Raven does in her private time is none of your damn business.”

“Okay, let’s settle down,” Kane said calmly, stepping in between Clarke and Roan with a nervous expression on his face. “We need to focus on solutions and not point fingers.”

“Easy. Request a gag order, maybe something about how women get unfairly vilified when it comes to sexual conduct and how this would make it hard to get an unbiased jury,” Clarke explained, like it was the easiest thing in the world.

“That kind of thing takes time, Clarke,” Roan snapped condescendingly.

“Then, get your wife to make a few phone calls and speed it up. It’s how you got the confession thrown out, right?” Clarke said with a terrifying smile, and Raven glanced around the room, seeing terrified expressions from the other interns.

“Clarke,” Kane warned.

“Just reminding him that all of us do questionable things for this job. And he’s no better than any of us,” Clarke muttered, before turning around to head back to Echo’s office.

Roan muttered an “I’m sorry” before storming into the kitchen and making a phone call. Kane went back to his office in a huff.

“What the fuck just happened?” Monty asked with wide eyes, and Raven just shrugged, not sure she could answer that.

“Guess Clarke is taking her new job as Echo seriously,” Murphy mumbled.

After a while, they all got back to work in relative silence. Occasionally, Kane would come in with a request or two. Jaha came downstairs to get some coffee before leaving for the day, and Raven couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable about him being in the house. And it was clearly unnerving Emori too. Kane said it would only be for a few weeks… but he couldn’t be gone soon enough.

 

_Murphy_

 

“You know I trust you, right?” he said against the bathroom door, hearing Emori crying on the other side of the door. Kane had let them go early, since he said he had something to deal with tonight. So Murphy had been trying to soothe Emori for the better part of the last hour. “Even without Clarke backing you up, I didn’t believe the rumor,” he reminded her, and the bathroom door opened.

“He was my friend,” Emori whispered, tears pouring down her face. “I don’t have friends.”

Murphy enveloped her in a hug before realizing what he was doing. He had never been the kind of person who liked physical contact or tried to comfort people, but Emori needed it. He expected her to pull away, but instead she buried her face into his chest, heaving into his shirt.

“He was the first person to ever see what kind of person I was and still stick by me. He was my friend,” she murmured, and Murphy rested his head on top of hers.

“I know,” he reminded her, because he couldn’t imagine how it would feel to be accused of something like this, especially when she so clearly cared about Wells. “And the rumors about you and Wells will be discredited tomorrow. Raven leaked the stuff about Wells’ virginity pact to the rival newspaper. No one will believe it anymore.”

“The damage is already done,” she whispered. He tightened his grip around her, not sure what else he could do to fix this. This wasn’t his area of expertise. He wasn’t a person who comforted other people. Never had been.

“No, it’s not. You’re gonna look like the victim of a desperate DA who is resorting to tabloid scandal tactics to turn public support against you. It sounds better coming out of Raven’s mouth, but people will jump on your side of this,” he explained, and Emori pulled away, wiping her tears off her cheeks. “You are a good person. That’s why Kane took your case.”

“He took my case because you made him,” Emori clarified, and he nodded, before looking down at the ground. He took a deep breath, realizing that Emori didn’t step too far away… and he became nervous about how close she was to him right now. “I need to tell you something.”

Murphy’s head shot up in confusion, fearing that somehow he had been wrong about her. That she had been lying about something.

“I overheard Echo talking a while ago. She was talking about these files that she made about all of you guys,” she started, and Murphy narrowed his eyes in confusion. “She must not have noticed I was there or listening or whatever. But I broke into her office and read them.”

“What?”

“I read your file,” she said gravely, and Murphy’s stomach turned at the thought. “I know about what happened to your dad. I know it wasn’t my business, but I was curious and didn’t understand why you helped me, and then it made sense.”

“My dad had nothing to do with why I helped you,” he snapped, and her eyes widened in confusion. Murphy swallowed, trying not to be furious that after everything the two of them had gone through that she still didn’t get it. “At first, maybe I was projecting onto you. But once you started talking to me, it was just because I wanted to help you because I fucking care about you.”

He watched closely as this realization washed over Emori’s face, and he was terrified that he said too much or that she would feel pressured by that confession. But she didn’t move away. In fact, she stepped closer to him, and Murphy felt like he couldn’t breathe. But he didn’t step away from her… not when her hand touched his cheek, not when she got up on her tiptoes, and not when her hesitant lips met his.

 

_Monty_

 

He had to admit that Raven’s plan for leaking the virginity pact was brilliant… which is probably why Monty found himself worrying that Raven might get the trophy… which would leave him very screwed over since he had not started studying for the damn exam. And it certainly didn’t help when Professor Kane muttered that he couldn’t even remember who had the trophy at the moment, which meant that he forgot about Monty’s contribution to the death row case already.

This was probably why Monty decided to show up at the Dropship, the bar that the interns for the DA’s office frequented after work.

“Did you strike out again?” Monty asked as Bellamy slid back next to him.

“She probably has a boyfriend or something,” he muttered before taking another sip out of his bottle, but Monty wasn’t buying it. He had been to bars with Bellamy before. He had no problem picking up girls. But he had gone up to five different girls from the DA’s office and came back with nothing every time. Something was off.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Monty finally asked, and Bellamy raised an eyebrow at him. “You’ve been grumpy and weird at Kane’s, and now you’re not interested in flirting for leads,” he pointed out, and Bellamy let out a huff. “Who is she?”

“We’re not doing this,” Bellamy said with a smirk.

“Why not?” Monty asked. After all, they were friends. Sure, Monty had been a little pissed off about the incident last week, but that was mostly Raven’s doing anyway. His problem wasn’t really with Bellamy.

“Because I don’t talk about my love life,” he replied.

“Well, your grumpiness is scaring away our potential leads. So start talking,” Monty insisted, and Bellamy threw his head back in frustration.

“Okay, there is a girl, an infuriating girl,” Bellamy finally conceded, and Monty tried to keep his face neutral even though internally he was screaming. He liked Bellamy, of course. But getting him to talk about his personal life was like pulling teeth. “A while back, I realized I was attracted to her, but she was dating someone else. I thought it was just a passing thing, but then I actually started to like her. Then, she and the other guy broke up.”

Monty furrowed his brows, thinking this over. He had imagined that whatever tale Bellamy had would have to be a bit more scandalous than this. But this literally sounded like high school dating drama. But Monty kept his mouth shut.

“A little while after they broke up, something kind of happened between us.”

“What do you mean ‘kind of?’” Monty had to ask, and Bellamy raised his eyebrow at him. Monty shut his mouth, gesturing for him to continue.

“We have not talked about it at all. And I shouldn’t really care. It was kind of casual,” he muttered.

“You don’t want it to be casual,” Monty jumped in.

“I never said that!” Bellamy snapped, wagging his finger at Monty. Monty smirked at him, noticing how red his face got at Monty’s accusation. “Anyway, she’s pretending it never happened, meanwhile I know her ex is still obsessed with her, and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it,” he groaned, and Monty cocked his head to the side.

“Is she avoiding you or something?” he had to ask.

“No,” Bellamy said almost as a question. “It’s more like she’s avoiding being alone with me,” he clarified before clenching his jaw.

Monty opened his mouth to speak, but two girls sat down at their table and introduced themselves, and Monty took the lead on this one, since Bellamy’s grumpiness kept scaring people away.

When they got to Kane’s house, Bellamy was still a little bit drunk.

“We have a problem,” Monty announced as he stepped into Kane’s office. Professor Kane looked exhausted, like he had a particularly rough night.

“This better be pretty damn important.”

“The DA is putting Emori’s childhood therapist on the witness list. Apparently, she had a really volatile and violent upbringing in foster care and they’re using him as an expert witness to explain that people who grow up like that are more likely to become violent as adults,” Monty explained, and Kane started pouring himself a glass of scotch.

“Well, I really thought my night couldn’t get any worse,” he muttered, before downing the entire glass. Monty looked back at Bellamy with wide eyes, trying to figure out what the hell else could be ruining Kane’s night.

 

_Clarke_

 

She was already running late. Her alarm clock didn’t go off, her hair wasn’t working today, and she couldn’t find her damn phone. Then, she heard a pounding on her door. She ran to answer it, wondering who the hell would be here at this hour of the day.

When she opened the door, a tiny brunette was standing there with a smirk on her face.

“You must be Clarke,” she said, and Clarke cocked her head in confusion. “My name is Ontari Kingsley,” she introduced herself, and Clarke felt her stomach clench.

“I’m sorry,” Clarke stuttered out, “what are you doing here?”

“I came to talk to you,” she said with a smile as she brushed past Clarke into her apartment. “Not going to lie, I was expecting a grander apartment than this.”

Clarke’s jaw dropped, trying to figure out what good reason Roan’s wife would have for visiting her like this. Roan swore he didn’t tell Ontari about Clarke, although considering the family Ontari came from, Clarke shouldn’t be surprised that she figured it out on her own.

“Let’s cut to the chase, shall we?” she said, sitting down on Clarke’s couch, before crossing her legs. “I need you to do one of two things for me. Either you tell Roan that you have no interest in him, regardless of his marital status, or you continue seeing him discreetly while he and I work through our marital problems.”

“Excuse me?” Clarke snapped, shaking her head as she leaned against the wall.

“Oh, he’s actually pushing for a divorce this time around. And for business reasons, I can’t let that happen,” she said casually, and Clarke’s jaw dropped, not believing what was coming out of this woman’s mouth. “I just need him to realize that divorcing me won’t help him get you back, understand?”

“He’s never getting me back,” Clarke clarified. “I didn’t even know he was married.”

“Oh good, so the first option then?” she asked, and Clarke threw her hands up in frustration.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Clarke yelled, as Ontari stood up and brushed her skirt off.

“Making sure that you aren’t going to be a problem for me,” she replied coolly, raising an eyebrow at Clarke. “I don’t care if you keep sleeping with him. I just need to keep this ring on my finger.”

“Get out of my apartment,” Clarke snapped, gesturing toward the door.

“Just consider it. I’ll owe you a favor. You might need it,” she said with a smirk, before walking toward the door.

Luckily, Roan wasn’t at Kane’s house when she got there, and Clarke quickly got briefed on what Monty and Bellamy found out last night. She darted up the stairs to Echo’s office before Roan got back, not willing to deal with that issue just yet.

After a few hours of making phone calls for Kane, Murphy came in there with a concerned look on his face.

“I need your help,” he said, and Clarke raised an eyebrow at him. “So Echo kept files on all of us,” he started and Clarke’s eyes widened. “Uh, Emori went through her stuff and read them all. Last night, she told me about everyone’s.”

“What was on my file?” Clarke asked nervously, already making a list of horrible things that could be on there.

“Just some stuff about your family,” he said grimly, and that told Clarke he knew enough. “Like that they killed your girlfriend.”

“That was never proven,” Clarke clarified, and Murphy’s expression softened slightly. “Why are you telling me this?” She gripped the side of the desk, trying to brace herself. She already spent most of this morning feeling like she needed to cry, and the last thing she needed was someone asking her about Lexa.

“Because you probably learned a lot of stuff growing up in that family,” he explained hesitantly, and Clarke bit her lip. “Uh, Kane put me in charge of figuring out how to discredit the expert witness. He’s the therapist that Emori used to go to.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Okay, I’m stuck because I’m thinking like me. When I probably need to be thinking like someone like you,” he stuttered out, before wincing at his own words. “I mean, fuck.”

“You want to know how I would come after someone,” Clarke jumped in, and Murphy nodded, looking awkward about this whole conversation. “Uh, this would be a better job for Echo, but she’s still not here,” Clarke huffed, kind of pissed that Kane just expected Clarke to be just as good as Echo even when Clarke wasn’t one hundred percent sure what Echo even did most of the time.

She clenched her eyes shut, trying to think this through. She was kind of pissed that Kane put this task on Murphy of all people… then again, it seemed like Kane was asking more of all of them lately with very little explanation as to what he was actually doing.

“Maybe try to prove that Emori had a toxic relationship with her therapist,” she suggested, and Murphy cocked his head in confusion. “Uh, talk to her and see if he was combative in the sessions. Or maybe if she felt like he didn’t accurately listen to what was going on with her. Search for any indication that her therapy sessions might have done more harm than good. Then, we could look for other people who had similar reports on him. Discredit him as a witness by saying that he was an ineffective therapist and therefore not the expert the DA makes him out to be.”

“And if that doesn’t work?” Murphy asked nervously.

“Then we’ll think of something else,” she sighed, before resting her head on the desk. “Maybe that expert witnesses legally can be paid and that would influence him to say whatever they want or whatever.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she blew him off, and she heard him leave the office. Clarke climbed out of the chair before sinking onto the floor, resting her back against the desk. Finally, the sob she had been fighting all day came out as she buried her face in her knees.

Clarke was exhausted, and she wasn’t okay with working on Wells’ case. Everyone was more hostile than ever. Ontari showed up and confronted her. Roan was acting possessive. Her mother was on her ass. Murphy knows about her family and about Lexa.

She tried to take a deep breath, but she couldn’t. There was a knock on the door, and Clarke just knew it was Roan. He always had a way of showing up at just the wrong time.

“Not now,” Clarke growled, and heard the door open anyway.

“Clarke?” she heard Bellamy say, and Clarke threw her head back. Of course, the other person she was avoiding. “Hey, what’s wrong?” he said, once he actually saw her. He crouched down next to her with that concerned look on his face, and she felt her chest tighten. She really didn’t want to see Bellamy like this, all concerned and sweet. She knew what happened the week before needed to be a one-time thing, and it wasn’t like Bellamy was the kind of guy who ever did anything serious anyway. But when he looked at her like that… like he actually cared… she felt lost. Because she wanted to believe it, but knew better. Roan was enough of a lesson for her.

“It’s nothing,” Clarke blew it off, as Bellamy sat down next to her. She refused to meet his eyes, knowing she’d probably let everything out because she wanted to trust him. He felt so right, and she knew that meant she was going to get hurt again.

“You can talk to me,” he whispered, and his hand reached up to wipe the tears off her cheek.

“No, I can’t,” Clarke said, before biting her lip. Bellamy didn’t know that she had basically been Roan’s mistress, so it wasn’t like she could just vent about being confronted by Ontari that morning. She couldn’t just casually mention that Lexa got murdered because of Clarke. And she couldn’t admit that being on this case was killing her.

These were things she couldn’t tell anyone, especially not someone who just saw her as another conquest.

And maybe Bellamy understood that. Or maybe he didn’t know what to say. But he pulled Clarke into his chest, and she kept sobbing as his hands rubbed up and down her back.

 

_Echo_

 

The biggest connection between Jaha and Jake Griffin was that Jaha was funding most of his campaign. For the most part, she could see how Jaha’s interests were being protected by Griffin’s policies, so the issue between them couldn’t be political.

She had buried herself in her apartment for a while now, gathering articles, emails, any information that would give any insight into how and why Jaha would murder Jake Griffin.

She knew about how Wells died. The payments that Marcus made her bury were likely for a hitman, especially since the job was professionally done. And the motive was clearly that Wells knew how and why Jaha killed Jake and was going to move forward with it. After all, Wells had nothing to lose. He had already been essentially disowned by the family and lost all his close friends. His only last connection was Emori, who was tragically being framed for all of this.

Echo heard the sound of someone unlocking her door, and immediately reached for her gun. She aimed for the door, only to see Roan walk in with his hand on his gun as well.

“Get out,” Echo growled, as Roan shut the door behind him.

“It’s time for you to come home, Echo,” Roan whispered, and Echo lowered her gun.

“I’m not going back unless he turns the phone over to the police,” Echo growled, and Roan clenched his eyes shut.

“You know it isn’t that simple. I think Jaha has something on Marcus,” he replied, and Echo cocked her head to the side. “And we still don’t have proof that it’s even true,” he said in a way that screamed he didn’t even believe what he was saying. “Echo, you can’t just spend all of your time trying to prove this. Even if we find evidence to take him to trial, he will get out of it, only this time without us on his side… which will make him vindictive.”

Echo let out a huff, knowing this was true. Thelonious Jaha would never spend a moment in jail, even if there was all the evidence in the world to convict him. He had too many friends, was owed too many favors, had enough blackmail… he was essentially untouchable.

“He did it, Roan,” she said sternly.

“How do you know that?” he asked, and she knew that he accepted that Jaha did it. He just couldn’t rationalize doing something about it until it was concrete.

“Do you know who leaked the story about Emori screwing Wells to the press?” she asked, and Roan’s face faltered. “Thelonious Jaha paid a lot of money for that headline. He’s actively working against your case, and Marcus is making it easier by letting him in that house.”

Roan sat down, clenching his jaw as he thought this over.

“He could have recorders and bugs in every room, listening to every case and argument you guys prepare and handing it over to Wallace. Emori will be convicted of murder, no matter what you guys come up with,” she murmured, shaking her head. “We’ve done a lot of horrible things for our clients, but this one is too much.”

“What are we supposed to do, Echo? We can’t get him behind bars and if we try the three of us and probably all of the interns will have our lives ruined by him.”

“He murdered your girlfriend’s dad,” Echo snapped, and Roan’s jaw twitched at that. She knew Clarke was a sensitive subject for him, but she also knew that Clarke was one of the few weaknesses Roan still had. “I mean, the rest of her family is horrible, but her father was a good man. He didn’t get murderers off like we do. He used the wealth he married into to help the innocent.”

“Echo, stop.”

“And you know Clarke took the LSAT to be just like him. Hell, she argues just like him. Could you imagine waking up one day to find out that the only good person in your family was murdered?”

“Clarke doesn’t know about Thelonious’ involvement!” Roan yelled.

“No, he’s acting like he’s her damn father figure now that her dad is gone. He hugs her when he sees her. Tells the world that he hoped to call her daughter one day. All while knowing that he is the reason her dad is dead,” Echo growled, and Roan stood up abruptly.

“Do not tell Clarke,” he warned, and Echo raised an eyebrow. To be honest, she had never even considered telling Clarke… but it might solve the Thelonious problem. After all, she would immediately tell her mother, and before the end of next week, her grandfather would make sure that Thelonious Jaha was dead.

Echo swallowed, reminding herself that she needed to stop thinking of Jaha ending up dead as the solution to this horrible situation… but it kind of was the perfect solution. Legally, they couldn’t touch him. He was going to outsmart them at every turn. And Marcus was too delusional to take the threat seriously. But if he died, it wouldn’t be hard to put Wells’ murder on him and free Emori. And there would be no consequences. Marcus wouldn’t be in his debt. And they could stop covering for that man.

And luckily, this was a solution she could pursue.

“Echo, what are you thinking?” Roan growled, and she glanced back at him.

“Nothing,” she lied.

“You need to come back. Marcus is putting the kids on tasks that they’re scrambling to do. He’s made Clarke the new you, which is incredibly ineffective since she doesn’t have the contacts you have. Just come back for us, not him. Please. I need you,” he pleaded, and Echo thought this over.

If she really wanted to know what Jaha was up to, it would be easier if she were near him. She could search the house for bugs, she could go through his things, she could get a read on his behavior… and she could get a general idea of what kind of schedule he had, just in case.

“Fine. But only so I can tell Marcus off to his cowardly face,” she groaned.

 

_Bellamy_

 

“Clarke! Where are the jury testing files I asked for?” Marcus shouted from inside his office, and Clarke jumped up from the couch to run over to him. Bellamy didn’t like how Clarke was doing. Earlier, he was sitting on the couch when Murphy came down saying he was worried about Clarke. And then when Bellamy went to find her, she was on the floor sobbing and couldn’t tell him what was going on.

“You have not asked me for anything like that,” he heard Clarke reply calmly, but he could hear just a hint of panic in her voice.

“Yes, I did. In the recording I made last night. Did you not listen to it like I asked you to?”

“Professor Kane, it was not on your desk this morning, so no,” Clarke snapped, and Bellamy exchanged a nervous look with Murphy. He had never heard Clarke talk like that to Kane… ever.

He waited for Kane to say something back, but it was only silence. Then, he heard Clarke walk back into the living room, so Bellamy pretended to be looking over transcripts. He could hear Kane start to tear apart his office, looking for it. He stole a glance at Clarke, who was forcing herself to take deep breaths.

The front door swung open, and Bellamy jerked his head up to see Roan and Echo walking in.

“Let me guess. Some vital piece of information is missing,” Echo growled, and Kane ran out of his office with a confused look on his face. “Jaha took it, you idiot.” Bellamy ducked his head down nervously, and Clarke slowly made her way to the couch.

“Echo, can I speak to you in my office? Roan, you too,” Kane ordered, and the rest of them sat in complete silence until the door shut behind them all.

“What the fuck is going on?” Monty whispered, and Bellamy glanced over at Clarke, since out of all of them, she was the most in the know… but she was just as confused as the rest of them.

“Echo is pissed about something,” Raven muttered, but that much was obvious.

“Why did she think Jaha would take the recording?” Clarke asked, glancing at Bellamy who didn’t have a clue. “Is it just because he’s Wells’ dad?”

“Fuck if I know,” Raven sighed, and Bellamy heard the sound of the front door shutting. He glanced up, realizing that both Emori and Murphy just walked out the front door. He got up, walking toward the window. They were both standing in the front yard, and it looked like they were arguing about something.

“Hey, what’s been going on with Murphy and Emori?” Bellamy asked, glancing back at the others.

“They’re probably screwing. That’s all I got,” Raven huffed.

“They’re fighting right now,” Bellamy said, noticing that Murphy was doing that hair pushing thing he only did when frustrated.

“There’s a lot of that going around right now,” Monty replied, and Bellamy decided to leave this situation alone. It wasn’t any of his business, not really. Bellamy walked back to the couch, seeing that Clarke had stretched out a bit and was resting her eyes.

“When was the last time you slept?” he asked, and Clarke’s eyes fluttered open sleepily.

“I overslept this morning. I’m fine,” she sighed, before adjusting herself so she could get more comfortable. He swallowed, realizing that she was probably up too late in the first place.

He wasn’t sure where he stood with Clarke or why exactly she was avoiding having a real conversation with him. He wasn’t going to be the one to break the agreement that they weren’t going to talk about what happened at the party, since Clarke explicitly told him that it never happened. But she hadn’t brought up the kiss. And she stopped seeking him out.

She was guarded around him now, which he wasn’t used to. And he didn’t like it. He missed their weird friendship where she stole his highlighters every time he called her “princess” and poked him in the side whenever she teased him.

Roan stepped out of Kane’s office with a grim look on his face. “All of you can go home for the day,” he announced, before stepping back into the office.

Clarke rolled off the couch before heading upstairs to grab whatever stuff she left in Echo’s office. Bellamy packed up slowly so he could catch her when she came back down, while the others bustled out of there. Clarke was rubbing her eyes when she came back in.

“Hey, what happened?” he asked, and her eyes flickered up to meet his.

“I just got overwhelmed, that’s all,” Clarke murmured, before picking up her purse. He walked next to her as she made her way to the front door.

“Clarke, I found you crying on the floor,” he reminded as he held the door open for her. Emori and Murphy must have gotten the memo they could leave, because they were brushing past Bellamy and Clarke to grab their stuff.

“People cry, Bellamy,” she retorted, not even looking up at him. He stepped in front of her, blocking her path to her car.

“Talk to me,” he pleaded.

“Why are you so worked up over this?” Clarke huffed, looking up at him with a frustrated look on her face.

“Because I’m worried about you,” he snapped.

“Why?” Clarke asked with a confused expression in her eyes. Bellamy opened his mouth to argue with her, to wonder how she could even ask that, but no words came out. He didn’t understand what was going on with her. She was clearly upset about something and he wanted to know about it because he was worried. There shouldn’t have to be an explanation for that.

He thought this over as Murphy and Emori rushed back out of the house and made their way to his car.

“Look, I get things between us have been weird ever since…” Clarke trailed off, and Bellamy narrowed his eyes at her. “But you don’t have to pretend to care about this stuff. It’s not your problem.”

“I’m not pretending to care, Clarke,” he snapped, wondering how she could even accuse him of doing that. “I fucking care.”

“No, you don’t,” she snapped with a bit more bite in her voice, that made Bellamy jump a bit. “I’m the entitled princess that you like to fight with. I get it. And things got heated at that party. But that doesn’t mean I’m any less the annoying brat that you can’t stand. So just stop pretending that you care.”

Bellamy swallowed, trying to process all of that. He had been trying to be a better person to Clarke. He went out of his way to check up on her, he tried to keep their fights on the teasing level at worst, he did what he could to be there for Clarke. He knew he had a lot of shitty behavior to make up for. But he really thought it was obvious that he at least cared about her enough to be concerned when she cried.

But there was always this fear that the damage was already done, that he had been too awful to Clarke. He struggled with what to say to her, with what could undo all his snide comments and petty remarks. And there was only one thing that came to mind… and it wouldn’t be enough. But he said it anyway.

“I don’t see you like that, Clarke,” he said seriously, and her brows furrowed in confusion. “You’re not the person I assumed you were all those months ago. I made a rash judgment, and I’m sorry.”

Her lips parted as she struggled to say something in response. He could see her brain working through this, and he knew that there was no resolution to this today. He was going to have to keep fighting for her, to prove that he wasn’t the ass that he acted like when they met. Maybe one day she would see that he cared about her, and maybe she would let him back in. And he could stop missing her so damn much.

“Uh, you can text or call me whenever if you want to talk to me about whatever happened or if you need someone to distract you. I just, fuck,” he stuttered, now looking down at the ground as he got his thoughts back together. “Look, I’m not good at acting like I care, but I do. I don’t like that you’re upset, and I want to help if I can.” He glanced up at Clarke, looking for any clue as to how she was taking this, but she still looked so confused.

“Okay,” she finally whispered.

 

**One Day Later**

 

_Roan_

 

He tried his best to act calm around Echo, but she was overly suspicious of everything. And he understood why. Nothing added up. Marcus was insisting that Jaha ran, refusing to even acknowledge the possibility that he was murdered. There was no reason for Jaha to run. It wasn’t like he couldn’t get away with this. Echo knew he was dead, and so did Roan.

“I think it’s best if we all just operate under the assumption he ran,” Roan decided, and Echo rolled her eyes in frustration. “What? Would you rather us all go to the police and say we think he was murdered even though there was no body to prove it?” he snapped, and Echo let out a huff. “They’ll ask me if I knew anyone I would suspect of murder, and I’d have to lie and say that I didn’t hear you threaten to hire someone to take Jaha out just hours before he went missing.”

“Please, we’re not going down this road. You don’t have a good alibi with the noticeable exception of the five minutes you spent with your mistress,” Echo growled, and Roan gripped onto the table even harder.

“What are you saying, Echo?”

“I’m wondering if you actually spent the entire night in your apartment.”

“You think I did this?” he snapped.

“I think there’s no line you wouldn’t cross for Marcus,” she growled, and Roan stormed out of the kitchen.

“Where are you going?” Marcus shouted from his office.

“Home. Jaha ran. That’s none of our damn concern,” he growled, grabbing his coat off the chair, before tugging it on. Neither of them stopped him on his way to his car.

He didn’t stop shaking even once he was seated in the car. He contemplated calling Clarke, but already regretted how many times he placed traceable calls to her tonight. So, he decided to drive to her apartment. He needed to know once and for all if she did this.

She would have had to have an accomplice, since there was no way she could get rid of a body by herself. Then again, Clarke only had to make one call to get anyone she needed to clean up the crime scene.

Once he was outside her apartment, he clenched his eyes shut, thinking this over. He knew everything he had was circumstantial evidence. Clarke could have just snapped and stolen the trophy from Monty. Just because it happened the same night as Jaha’s death didn’t mean she had anything to do with it. And the trophy could have been damaged at Monty’s apartment and no one noticed. Clarke could have been avoiding his calls because she was pissed at him. Clarke could have been jittery because she hasn’t been sleeping.

There were a million possible explanations for tonight, and he hoped that any of them were true… as long as it wasn’t the one creeping around in his brain.

He knocked on her door, but there was no response. He knew he should leave, that she was likely asleep… but he just needed to make sure she was here and okay. So, he picked her lock, which he knew she would yell at him over.

When he opened the door, her apartment was pitch dark.

“Clarke?” he called out as he walked toward her bedroom. But she wasn’t here.


	9. It Happened

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaah! We're so close to the murder! I'm excited, are you guys excited?
> 
> Anyway, this chapter is shorter than most. Pretty sure each POV has some kind of argument if not two. Lots of fighting and angst this chapter. A few sweet moments here and there, but mostly angst. What do you expect from the chapter that starts just two hours before the murder?
> 
> Thanks for all the love and support guys. I'm having a lot of fun writing this fic, and I've been loving the comments. You guys have brought up some really cool points and questions. And, not to beg or anything, but I would really love to hear from you guys on this chapter. I kinda want to know what you all think is going to happen next chapter. I promise I won't keep you guys waiting long for chapter ten or anything. Hell, it'll probably be up tomorrow night. I just really like hearing your theories... like it might be my favorite part of writing fics like these.

_Raven_

 

She immediately ran into the bathroom and threw up. Her brain was too jumbled, too confused about what just happened. There was too much blood, too much screaming.

She shakily cleaned her face off before stepping back into the foyer, and no one had moved an inch… well, Clarke had stood up and pushed the body off her, but other than that, everyone was frozen.

“Check his pulse,” Monty said again.

“He’s dead,” Bellamy growled, and Raven forced herself to look at the body again. She had never been to a funeral in her life, never seen a dead person before… and she didn’t imagine it being like this. Then, she glanced over at the pool of blood where the trophy had been dropped.

“You could check to make sure,” Monty suggested.

“You go ahead and put your DNA on him,” Raven snapped.

“I’ll do it,” Clarke said, and Bellamy gripped her hand warningly. “My DNA is already on the body,” Clarke explained, before pulling her hand out from his clasp. Raven held her breath as Clarke crouched down close to Jaha, and Clarke looked tense as she checked for a pulse.

“I’m telling you, he’s dead,” Murphy grumbled, but Raven held out hope for just half a second. When Clarke stood back up, she knew he was dead.

“We need to call the police, say it was an accident,” Emori said, and Raven snapped her head in her direction.

“This wasn’t an accident,” Raven growled, stepping around the body toward Emori. Murphy jumped in front of her with a murderous look on his face.

“Raven, leave Emori out of this,” he warned.

“None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for her,” Raven snapped.

“And we can’t call the police,” Bellamy said, and that was enough to jerk Raven out of her confrontation with Murphy.

“We have to!” she shouted. Bellamy glanced at Clarke before looking back at Raven with a threatening look on his face.

“No, we don’t.”

 

**Two Hours Earlier**

 

_Roan_

 

Roan didn’t hesitate to dial Clarke as soon as Ontari slammed the front door behind her.

“Oh, this will go over well,” Echo teased, and Roan whipped his head around to glare at her.

“You’re going to keep your mouth shut,” he threatened. He was instructed to keep an eye on Echo so that she didn’t do anything stupid or make good on her threats. That was the only thing keeping him from going into the other room to have a private phone call with Clarke.

“Why are you calling me?” Clarke yelled. “I have exams next week and this is the small window of time I have to study.”

“Why didn’t you tell me Ontari stopped by your apartment?” he said, and Echo stretched herself out on the couch, picking up her laptop. He yanked it out of her hands, not trusting her with it yet.

“Figured your wife would clue you in,” she snapped.

“Clarke, this is serious,” he explained in a huff. Roan wasn’t aware that things between him and Ontari had escalated to the point where she was tracking down Clarke.

“No, it’s really not. She asked me to either keep screwing you on the down low or to end things with you permanently. And I told her I didn’t want to be with you, married or not.”

Roan’s chest tightened up at those words. He knew Clarke was angry with him, but he really thought it would pass. “Clarke, please,” he pleaded, but was met with silence.

“She barely escaped this crazy as is. There’s no way in hell she wants to be involved in your fake marriage,” Echo snapped, and Roan whipped his head around to glare at her. Then, he noticed her purse was open, revealing a gun he wasn’t aware she still had on her. He thought he had already disarmed her.

“Clarke, I’m gonna call you back.”

“No, you’re not!” he heard Clarke yell as he hung up. Echo raised an eyebrow at him as he slowly stepped toward her.

“Echo,” he said cautiously, and she slowly sat up, looking at him with suspicion. She started to reach for her gun, but Roan pulled his back out, aiming it right at her. “Back away from it,” he warned, and she leaned back against the couch in frustration. He kicked her purse away from her reach, before lowering the gun.

Roan was exhausted. The screaming match between them and Marcus lasted most of the last night, and then Roan had to keep an eye on Echo.

“You know I’m right,” she whispered, but Roan kept his mind occupied with other issues, knowing that if he listened to Echo that she could get in his head. He redirected his attention to Ontari, wondering how the hell he was going to get himself out of this mess. Her visit to Clarke wasn’t just to put Clarke in her place. No, it was a very clear threat. She wanted Roan to know that she could get to Clarke. “Kane can’t just turn everything over to the cops without revealing how much stuff he’s hidden for Jaha.”

Roan swallowed, refusing to engage on the subject. He needed to figure out a way to explain Ontari to Clarke. On one hand, she understood why and how these arrangements came to be. On the other hand, her biggest fear was getting stuck with Wells Jaha, who couldn’t hurt a fly. She had no idea what it was like to be trapped with someone who could actually do harm, and he prayed she’d never have to learn.

“Thelonious is a murderer. And don’t think he won’t come after all of us once Kane goes through with this ridiculous plan. You, me, Clarke…”

“Echo, stop!” he shouted, looking up to meet her smug face.

“He needs to go,” she said calmly, and Roan shook his head. He knew that he had done bad things in his life. But that was one line he couldn’t cross. And it terrified him how quickly Echo fell back on old habits.

“We’re not murderers,” he replied, clenching his jaw as he spoke.

“Look me in the eye and tell me you’ve never killed a man,” she challenged, and Roan glanced down at the ground. “And I bet whoever he was deserved it a lot less than Thelonious Jaha.”

“It was in my old life. I’ve learned my lesson,” he snapped, and Echo cocked her head tauntingly.

“No, you haven’t. You just did it for the wrong reason. This is for the right reason.”

“Echo, are you even listening to yourself? Do you want to end up right where Marcus found you?” he murmured, rubbing his tired eyes.

“I won’t. Because I won’t be the one doing it,” she argued, and he threw up his hands in frustration. He blamed Marcus for this, mostly. After all, it was Marcus that taught her doing horrible things for good reasons makes it okay. It was practically the mantra of his practice. “It’s just one phone call. I know where all he’s going to be this weekend, and we just have to wait for a clean shot.”

“No,” he growled, and he saw Echo square herself up to keep arguing with him. She wasn’t going to stop until he agreed with her.

“If Marcus asked you to do it, you wouldn’t hesitate for a second.”

 

_Marcus_

 

He took another sip of his scotch as he listened to Thelonious’ car pull up. He braced his arm on the chair, waiting in terrified silence for the door to open.

“Marcus, is something wrong?” he asked casually as he closed the door behind him. Marcus bit his lip, furious that Thelonious could act so casual when he had been actively sabotaging Marcus this entire time. He lied to them about his alibi, he threatened them when they took on Emori’s case, he made them bury evidence, he stole case information and gave it to the prosecution… all to hide the fact that he murdered Jake Griffin and Wells Jaha.

“Sit with me,” Marcus replied, and Thelonious cautiously sat down across from him. “I have some bad news, and I’d rather you hear it directly from me.”

“Is this about Emori’s case?” he asked.

“Sort of. I was given some copies of conversations on Wells’ phone from before he died,” he explained, and Thelonious’ face went grave. “I have to turn what I’ve found over to the police or else I can face an obstruction of justice charge.”

“Marcus, do not give that over to the police,” he warned, and Marcus clenched his eyes shut. He knew which officers weren’t in anyone’s pocket, he knew which judges to avoid… he knew how to make sure this information didn’t just disappear.

“It doesn’t prove a thing. All it has is Wells accusing you of murdering Jake,” he replied, studying Jaha’s face closely for any sign of guilt or recognition. He waited for Thelonious to deny it, to say that it was a ridiculous accusation, that Wells was delusional. But he said nothing, and Marcus felt like he was going to be sick. “All you need to do is cooperate with the police, answer their questions. Do anything else, and it’ll make you look guilty. I’ll be right beside you like always. And it may not even be traceable to you.”

“I’ll get a new attorney,” he growled, before he pushed himself to stand up. “You think I did it, don’t you?”

“Of course not,” Marcus lied, knowing that the second he said anything other than that Thelonious would be onto him.

“Come on, admit it,” he growled, and Marcus stood up next to him.

“Admit what?”

“You think I killed Jake,” he spat.

“I think Jake died under mysterious circumstances and there has to be a good reason why that family hasn’t gotten to the bottom of it,” Marcus clarified.

“Why would I kill Jake?” he shouted.

“I don’t know!” Marcus snapped. “Maybe he had something on you and was going to turn you in for something. He was a good guy. I could see him having a crisis of conscience.”

“He wasn’t that good and you know it,” Jaha growled, and Marcus bit the inside of his mouth. “Or does it just help you to think of him that way? Does it help you rationalize how Abby left you for him?”

“That was years ago,” Marcus muttered.

“And yet, here you are all these years later, still pining after her.”

“Don’t change the subject. Did you kill Jake?”

“Marcus,” he warned.

“Did you kill Wells?”

“I would never kill my own son!” he shouted so loudly that Marcus jumped. “He was the only family I had left. I love him. There are a million horrible things I could do but never that.” Marcus swallowed, studying his face closely. He wasn’t lying. He didn’t kill Wells.

“Did you kill Jake Griffin?”

“Yes,” he snarled. Then, he stormed towards the stairs, and Marcus let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. When he pulled his phone out of his pocket to stop the recording, his hand was still shaking.

Once Thelonious was upstairs, Marcus quietly grabbed his keys and made his way to the front door.

 

_Murphy_

 

He looked around his bed, realizing that he really needed to clean his apartment once the semester is over. He grabbed what remained of his notecards and shoved them into his bag.

“Don’t forget the outlines,” Emori said, handing him the stack of outlines that Clarke had given him. “Are you going to be home later tonight?”

“Probably not. All of us are going over to Clarke’s to cram. I’m more likely to stay awake if they’re all there pushing me to study,” he sighed, and she nodded along. “Are you going to be okay here tonight?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” she asked defensively, and Murphy bit his lip. The two of them had been having the same fight over and over since yesterday. Emori wanted to get the phone back from Kane and take it to the police, and Murphy kept reminding her that Kane had a plan and she was going to be okay. The events of yesterday spooked Emori, which he understood. But Murphy also knew that not one of their clients this semester went to jail. He trusted Kane to use the phone when the time was right.

“I need you to promise me that you’re not going to try to get that phone back,” Murphy replied, and her brows furrowed defiantly back at him.

“I thought you said you trusted me.”

“I do. But I also know that you’re scared right now. And Kane isn’t going to help you if he catches you breaking into his house.”

“He’s never going to turn the phone in, John,” she snapped, and Murphy threw himself backwards on his bed in frustration.

“You don’t know that.”

“Jaha is his friend and client. That makes him a suspect in Wells’ murder. He’s not going to turn on his friend!”

“Look, I know it looks bad. But clearly Echo and Roan are on our side. I bet that’s why Echo left for so long. You just need to trust that the right thing is going to happen,” he sighed, hating how optimistic he sounded. He was never a trusting person, never been able to rely on anyone else. But there were things he could trust to be constant. Professor Kane being vicious and unable to accept defeat was one of those things. “Emori, I don’t want to fight with you.”

She sighed, lying down next to him on his bed. But she didn’t say anything. She didn’t promise that she would stay in the apartment or that she wouldn’t try to get the phone back, which made him nervous.

“If by Tuesday nothing has happened, then we can steal the phone,” he conceded, and Emori sat up to look at him. “And by that, I mean only if there have been no new leads in the case and things keep falling apart. If Kane gets an idea that could work, we’re gonna believe in it, okay?”

She leaned down to press a kiss to his cheek, before resting her head on his chest. He reached down to cover her hand with his, and closed his eyes. He knew he needed to go soon, that Raven and Bellamy were probably already at Clarke’s apartment and waiting for him.

“Wish you didn’t have exams so you could stay here,” she whispered, and he turned to press a kiss to her forehead.

“Trust me, I’d much rather do this all night. Instead, I have to listen to Bellamy bitch about Clarke’s font choices and Clarke act passive aggressive every time he calls her ‘princess.’”

“Not every couple can be as together as us,” she teased, but Murphy tilted his head up in confusion.

“They’re not a couple. They literally hate each other,” he replied, brows furrowed.

“You seriously buy that?” she asked, and he groaned as he rested his head back down on the mattress. Sure, they had all joked behind their backs that they were secretly in love with each other, but there was no truth to it. It was just amusing to imagine those two together.

Emori and Murphy lied there in silence for a few more minutes, and he listened to the sound of his clock ticking in the background. He knew he needed to go. He had to work on barely passing an exam, after all.

 

_Clarke_

 

If Roan called her one more time… she was going to scream. She ignored the call, like she had been doing for an hour now, when there was a knock on the door. She crossed over to open it, letting Bellamy inside.

“Where is Raven?” she asked, furrowing her brows in confusion.

“She said something came up and she’s not coming,” he explained. “Where’s Murphy?”

“Running late,” Clarke mumbled, and Bellamy rolled his eyes in response. They both got settled in the living room, exchanging each other’s notes as they got the last of the outlines ready.

She had worried that being alone with Bellamy would be awkward, especially given what a strange place they were in at the moment. But it just felt natural to relax on the couch next to him in comfortable silence as they crammed for whatever nightmare Kane had in store for them next week.

Half an hour passed like this, and Murphy still hadn’t shown up.

“Clarke, are you gonna answer that?” Bellamy asked, and she realized that her phone was ringing on the coffee table. She grabbed it quickly before Bellamy saw that Roan was calling, since she didn’t want to answer any questions.

“Hi,” Clarke answered quickly, as she ducked into her bedroom.

“Listen, can I come over? I need to talk to you,” he said, and Clarke resisted the urge to start screaming at him.

“No, you can’t. I only picked up to tell you to stop calling me,” she snapped quietly, peering around the corner to see Bellamy looking at her with an unamused expression on his face. She ducked back her room, praying that he didn’t see that Roan was calling. It was the last thing she wanted to explain.

“Please, I need to see you,” he pleaded, and Clarke could hear his voice breaking.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, realizing this might have something to do with why Echo and Kane were acting so strange.

“I can’t tell you,” he mumbled, and Clarke groaned. She was so fucking sick of playing this game with him.

“Well, you can’t come over here. I’m studying with the others. Stop calling me,” she snapped, before hanging up.

“Everything okay?” Bellamy asked, and Clarke jumped, realizing that he had been standing in the doorway without her noticing.

“Yeah, of course,” she lied, tucking her phone back into her pocket. He clenched his jaw as he gave her a once over, and Clarke couldn’t understand the expression on his face. He almost looked angry. Then, he let out a huff, before walking back into the living room. “What was that for?” Clarke asked, following after him.

“What was what for?” he mumbled, as he sat back down on the couch, not even looking back up at her.

“This,” Clarke said, gesturing to him. “Two seconds ago, you were fine, and now you’re being all passive aggressive and I don’t even know why.”

 “Passive aggressive?” he repeated, narrowing his eyes up at her. “I am not acting passive aggressive. I just asked you if you were okay, and then you lied and said everything was fine, and I was briefly annoyed.”

Clarke’s lips parted as she tried to make sense of this. Her thoughts had been drifting to Bellamy too much in the last twenty-four hours, especially after his little speech where he said that he cared about her. Clarke had no idea what that was supposed to mean. She wasn’t sure if it was just in a friendly way or if it was because of what happened at that party… or even if she could trust anything that came out of his mouth when it came to this kind of stuff. After all, this was the same guy who couldn’t even remember the name of the girl he took home a few months ago. And what happened at the party certainly wasn’t enough for him to flip the switch and suddenly start caring about Clarke.

“Okay, so maybe I’m not okay. But it’s not like you and I are going to waste study time so I can explain to you why I’m not okay. So, let it go,” Clarke muttered, and Bellamy slammed his book shut and just glared at her.

“What did we just talk about yesterday, Clarke?” he snapped, and Clarke threw her head back in frustration.

“That you ‘care’ about me or whatever that is supposed to mean,” she groaned, and Bellamy jumped off the couch and started marching toward her. “Like I don’t know if this is just you still feeling weird about what happened at the party, but we agreed it never happened.”

“It happened,” he corrected her with a serious expression on his face. “Why can’t you just admit that?”

“Because I don’t understand it!” she snapped, and Bellamy’s jaw clenched. “If it was just what happened at the party, I could just say we weren’t thinking clearly. But then you kissed me after and confused me.”

“Okay, let me make you less confused,” he said seriously, stepping a little too close to her. “I kissed you because I had wanted to for a while. It wasn’t a mistake. It wasn’t a random occurrence. I have feelings for you, so I kissed you.”

At his point, he was towering over her, his face just inches from hers. She sucked in a breath, letting those words wash over her. But it was hard to think clearly once Bellamy’s hand rested softly on her cheek, tilting her head up to look at him. This time, when his lips met hers, it was gentle, soft… barely any urgency in it at all. It wasn’t like when he pushed her up against his car and hungrily devoured her lips, leaving her dizzy and wanting.

He pulled away once they heard the knock on the door, and his eyes met hers. “Murphy can wait a few minutes,” he whispered, looking at her with such tenderness in his eyes. The hardest part of everything Bellamy just said and did was that she wanted to believe all of it.

But no one was ever that up front about what they wanted, or kissed her like that. He looked so vulnerable, so honest… and it scared her.

“I should let him in,” Clarke murmured, pulling away from Bellamy.

“Clarke, please,” he pleaded, as Clarke got her head back together.

“No, we need to study,” she blew him off as she crossed over to her door. She needed time to think about what just happened.

“Sorry I’m late,” Murphy muttered as he walked on in. Clarke swallowed as she followed after him, noticing a particularly solemn look on Bellamy’s face as she came back in the living room. “What’s wrong? Lovers’ quarrel?” he teased, and Bellamy’s eyes met Clarke’s.

“Of course not,” he snapped, before turning around to sit down on the couch.

 

_Echo_

 

“Okay, Echo, sit here while I talk to Marcus,” Roan snapped, dragging Marcus to the other side of the room. She was starting to lose her patience and they were running out of time, especially now that Marcus had run his mouth off to Jaha.

Marcus was still furious with her, of course. But that was just because he wasn’t willing to hear the only solution to their Jaha problem. It wasn’t like the recording Marcus made would be admissible in court or that now he could suddenly get Jaha behind bars. Most importantly, he only got him to admit to Jake’s murder, not Wells… which is what they really needed.

Her phone buzzed on the other side of the room, and she glanced over at Roan and Marcus, realizing they were too busy fighting with each other to notice her. So, she quietly crept over to where Roan put her phone and laptop, and saw that all her friend needed was verbal confirmation and it was as good as dealt with. She crept back to the couch before they noticed she had moved.

Then, Roan left the room to make a phone call, probably another desperate one to Clarke, leaving her all alone with Marcus.

“Echo,” he started calmly, sitting down on the coffee table and looking at her sternly. “We can’t just kill him,” Marcus said. “I got you out of prison because I wanted to help you, but this will get you right back in there.”

“I know how to do it and not get caught,” she replied, and his jaw twitched. “Marcus, he isn’t just going to come after you. He’s going to come after all of us. It’s not just your life you’re risking with this.”

“We’re going to get him before he gets us. Murder isn’t the answer,” he growled, and Echo bit her lip. “Okay, let me put it this way: I know that you feel like you owe me for what I did for you years ago. If you don’t do this, we will be even. You won’t owe me anything anymore.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, knowing that he never thought of their relationship as him saving her and her feeling indebted to him. It was more that Marcus had this undying need to adopt broken people and wanted to fix them.

But in her eyes, Marcus saved her out of nothing but that strange part of his heart, and Echo now had an opportunity to save him from himself. He wasn’t the kind of man who could just murder someone… which leaves him at a disadvantage with a monster like Jaha. But Echo was still a bit of a monster herself, and she could do it for him.

“I’m sorry,” she replied, and Marcus jumped up and started pacing.

“Echo, I forbid you to go anywhere near him,” he growled, and Echo jerked in response. She got up off the couch and gathered her stuff, knowing that Roan wasn’t near enough to stop her from leaving this time. “Echo,” Marcus yelled, jumping toward her, but Echo gestured to the gun that was now in her hand.

“Let me go,” she warned.

“If you do this, we are done. Do you understand me?” he shouted, and Roan ran back into the room with a horrified look on his face.

“Marcus, stop,” Roan snapped, and Echo’s shaky hand was already on the door.

“Echo, if you leave right now we are done with you. You won’t be able to come back to us,” he yelled, as Roan gripped onto him with a stern look on his face.

“I’m sorry,” she said, before slamming the door shut behind her.

 

_Monty_

 

He had just gotten off the phone with Harper and started getting dressed for the bonfire when he heard a knock on his door. He walked over to answer it, seeing Raven standing there with a nervous expression.

“Shouldn’t you be studying with the others?” he asked, and Raven brushed past him.

“I wanted to come apologize to you first,” she sighed, and Monty bit his lip. “Look, I know things have gotten heated between us lately. I’ve been kind of out to get you, and it’s just because of that stupid trophy. I should have never let things get this out of control.”

Monty’s lips parted, as he was confused to hear this startling apology from Raven. It was no secret that she was consistently undermining him at the office so that she would look better to Kane and get the trophy back. He just never expected her to admit to it.

“Hey, it’s okay. I mean, that’s Kane’s whole strategy. Turn us all against each other so our competitiveness makes us work harder,” he shrugged, and Raven nodded along.

“Uh, so are we okay?”

“Yeah, sure. It’s just a dumb trophy,” he replied.

“Are you heading over to the bonfire?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Yes. Figured I was in a good place with my other classes and could let off some steam. Did you want to come, or do you need to study?”

“You know, I’ve been studying all day and could use a break. Let’s go,” she said, and Monty walked back into his room to grab his coat. He was relieved that what was going between him and Raven these past few weeks was finally over. She was one of the first people he connected with in the group, and the one he has the most in common with.

When he came back into his living room, Raven was gone. “Raven?” he shouted, peering around the corner to see if she went in there for some reason. But she wasn’t there either and he got no response. He noticed his door wasn’t shut all the way… and his eyes immediately flickered to the coffee table, seeing that the trophy that had been sitting there for weeks was suddenly gone.

“For fuck’s sake,” Monty muttered, as he grabbed his keys and started dialing Raven.

He left her a voicemail as he drove over to Kane’s house, cussing her out for resorting to _literally_ stealing the trophy from him. Then again, why did he think this would end any differently? She wasn’t above taking short cuts to get what she wanted. And since Kane didn’t even keep up with who had the damn trophy, he was screwed.

Her car was parked on the street in front of his house, and Monty swung in behind her. He ran out of his car toward the house.

“Raven!” Monty shouted as soon as he opened the door, but immediately saw Thelonious Jaha standing in the foyer.

“What is going on here?” he asked, and Monty jogged in to see Raven sitting on the couch with his trophy.

“She came here because she stole my fucking trophy, and I’m here to make sure Kane knows what she tried to do,” he snapped, and Raven opened her mouth to argue, but something distracted her before she actually said something.

“Well, Marcus isn’t here. I think you should both leave and come back in the morning,” Jaha ordered, his tone sounding more threatening than what they were used to. He usually seemed so pleasant when talking with them. Then, Monty saw what distracted Raven. Emori was creeping up the stairs behind Jaha. He didn’t even see her come in, or maybe she had been in here this whole time…

Jaha’s eyes followed Monty’s, turning around to see her. “What are you doing?” Jaha growled, and Emori froze with a panicked look in her eyes.

“Call Murphy,” she pleaded, locking eyes with Monty, before sprinting up the stairs. Jaha shoved him out of the way before running after her. Raven jumped up to follow, and Monty started dialing Murphy as quickly as he could.

There was a door slammed up the stairs, and Monty moved toward the stairs to look at what was happening. Jaha was pounding on the door and trying to jerk it open.

“What’s going on?” Raven shouted, but Jaha ignored her.

“Open this damn door!” he shouted.

“It’s a little late to join in the study session,” Murphy answered the phone.

“Get to Kane’s house now. Emori is in trouble,” Monty ordered.

“What are you doing in there?” Jaha shouted.

“Don’t let him near her. We’re on our way,” Murphy said before hanging up, and Monty ran up the stairs. Raven was trying to pull Jaha away from the door, and Monty grabbed him by the other arm, jerking him far enough away that he could step in between Jaha and the door.

 

**Five Hours Later**

 

_Bellamy_

 

He tossed the last of the bags into the dumpster, before turning around. Monty and Raven were still sobbing into Clarke’s shirt, and Murphy was shutting the trunk.

“That’s the last of it guys. It’s done,” he announced, and Raven and Monty’s tearstained faces glanced up at him.

“We can go home now?” Monty asked, and Bellamy nodded. The three of them dispersed, as Monty and Raven made their way to his car. He grabbed Clarke’s wrist before she could move toward the car.

“Hey, it’s going to be okay,” Bellamy murmured, before leaning down to kiss her forehead.

“You don’t know that,” she replied, and he wrapped his arms around her. He knew they had to get going, but he also needed to remind her that she was going to be okay. She needed to be calm again if she was going to get the trophy back.

“I do. We did everything right. No one is going to talk. And we’re safe now,” he reassured, looking right into those scared blue eyes.

“Bellamy, I—”

“Stop. I know you have a hard time believing certain things I say, but I need you to believe me right now. I’m gonna take care of you, princess,” he interrupted, brushing the hair out of her face.

“Bonnie and Clyde, you two coming?” Murphy shouted, and Clarke broke away, wiping the tears from her cheeks. Bellamy shot him a dirty look, before brushing past him on the way to the driver’s seat.

Clarke was seated next to him this time, and Bellamy glanced back at the backseat. “Tonight never happened, everyone got that?” he confirmed and the three of them nodded in unison. “If we are ever asked about tonight, we were all at Clarke’s apartment studying until early in the morning, and then we all went home to sleep in our own beds. If anyone talks, we all pin tonight on that person.”

Bellamy turned back around in his seat and put the car in reverse. Clarke’s hand rested over his for a moment, and Bellamy stole a glance at her. She still looked terrified… but he could see that she trusted him. And he let out a sigh of relief.


	10. The Point of No Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the terror dome also known as the murder chapter. I jokingly call it "Murder and Chill" but there is absolutely not a chill moment in this chapter. Lots of POV shifts to cover all the important parts of Jaha's murder. Not every flash forward conversation from the previous chapters will be featured here, since you've already read them. This is almost 11k of murder induced panic, so enter at your own risk. This chapter is the reason for the violence warning... and technically the character death warning, but ya'll already knew God Complex Jaha was dead. 
> 
> I will say that it's a hella emotional chapter. You're gonna feel real bad for some people and get real pissed at others. 
> 
> Ahhh! I'm so excited about this chapter. I hope you guys are too. Enjoy the murder!

_Murphy_

 

“What is going on?” Bellamy snapped, keeping his eyes nervously fixed on the road.

“Cards on the table, Emori and I might have given Kane a phone belonging to Wells that has evidence that could get Emori free,” Murphy explained quickly, leaning forward anxiously. He kept his eyes on his phone, waiting for Monty or Raven to call him with an update.

“What?” Clarke asked, whipping her head around to look at him.

“Yeah, but Kane didn’t do anything with it because it would get Jaha in trouble. So now, Emori must have decided to sneak over and steal it from Kane so she can turn it in herself. But Jaha is there and I think he’s gonna hurt her,” he explained, and Clarke’s eyes widened sympathetically.

“Hey, take a deep breath for me,” she whispered, and Murphy tried to do what she said… but it was too much. They were hitting too much traffic, it was taking too long to get to her. It could be too late by the time he gets there.

“Shouldn’t we call the police?” Bellamy asked.

“No, Jaha is staying there. Emori is the intruder. If anything happens, he’ll claim self-defense, and this will go on her record,” Clarke explained. “Raven and Monty are there. They’ll keep Jaha from hurting her.”

Murphy let out a sigh of relief. He kept forgetting that Emori wasn’t alone. She would be okay. She had to be.

When they pulled up to the house, Murphy jumped out of the car and sprinted in, seeing Jaha, Raven and Monty struggling at the top of the stairs. He ran up the stairs immediately, and heard the sound of Clarke and Bellamy’s steps following after him.

“Emori, are you okay?” Murphy shouted, as Bellamy helped Monty get a better grip on Jaha.

“Is it safe for me to come out?” she shouted back, and he could hear the panic in her voice. He glanced back to see Bellamy nod at him.

“Yeah, you’re safe,” he reassured, and Emori slowly unlocked the door, before hesitantly opening it.

 

_Marcus_

 

“What are we going to do?” he murmured, leaning back on Roan’s couch. “We’ve lost her. Jaha will be dead by morning and there’s nothing we can do to stop her.”

“We can’t warn Jaha. He’ll just hunt Echo down,” Roan reminded, and Marcus nodded along. He regretted every single thing he said to Echo in the past two weeks. He should have known better. She only acts rashly when she’s desperate, and Marcus didn’t help the situation at all.

“Maybe it’s for the best,” he said cynically, earning a nervous expression from Roan. “I don’t want the man to die. But even I have to admit there was a dark part of me that saw her point. All our problems could disappear with that man’s death.”

“Are you still going to the police station in the morning?” he asked, and Marcus nodded.

“I just need to talk to two people first,” he mumbled. “It’s only fair I give both Griffin women warning about what I’m about to do.”

“Abby will probably take it okay, but I don’t know about Clarke,” Roan sighed, and Marcus couldn’t help but notice the sorrow in his voice as he spoke. Roan never told Marcus about his relationship with her, but Marcus wasn’t blind either. His heart went out to Roan, since Marcus knew that he had been miserable ever since he decided to return to his family and marry Ontari. But he understood how Clarke felt more. Marcus had been the third party in a very similar situation before, and it hurts in a way that Roan would probably never understand. Not to mention that Roan put Clarke in a very dangerous situation, which Clarke was smart enough to realize.

And Roan still thought he was getting out of the marriage, because he still wasn’t old enough to know better. Ontari wasn’t going to let go of him until she got everything she was promised, and he would lose everything the second the divorce papers were signed. He’d never end up going through with it. The price was too high.

And Clarke probably knew that. And she probably knows that without her family’s protection, Ontari could make her disappear quite easily. And, on top of all that, no young woman with a bright future wants to settle for a life of being the other woman.

“I think she’ll be grateful for some kind of closure. She’s gone through a lot in the past year,” he sighed, and Roan nodded along.

 

_Clarke_

 

Clarke could see Thelonious pleading with her to help him, and she didn’t know what she was supposed to think. She had no idea what was on the phone, but whatever it was would get him into trouble. She didn’t want to jump to the conclusion that it meant he was who killed Wells… because it couldn’t be him. He loved Wells. She didn’t want to believe that.

“What are we supposed to do now?” Raven asked, and Murphy crossed over to her with a nervous expression on his face.

“We can’t just keep him like this forever,” Bellamy muttered.

“Get off me!” Thelonious shouted, and Clarke bit her lip.

“Emori, come over here,” Clarke said, gesturing for Emori to get closer to the stairs so she could run if she needed to.

“Maybe we should call Kane,” Monty suggested, before Thelonious broke free of their grasp, throwing Monty into the wall. He darted toward Emori with a murderous look on his face, and before Clarke thought better of it, she pushed Emori out of the way, causing Thelonious to run right toward Clarke. Clarke jumped in between him and Emori, as he tried to shove his way around her. Clarke shoved him back, only to realize it was a little too hard of a push.

Maybe if the railing by the staircase was higher, he would have just bounced back toward Clarke. But instead, he flipped over it. And Clarke didn’t need to see what happened. She heard the loud thud on the ground below.

She felt someone grab onto her, but she was frozen as Raven and Murphy rushed down the stairs.

“Are you okay?” Bellamy asked, and Clarke realized it was his arms around her.

“You killed him!” Raven screamed at the top of her lungs, and Bellamy had to physically hold Clarke up to keep her from falling.

“Oh my God, oh my God,” Monty said frantically as he rushed down the steps after them.

“Bellamy,” Clarke whispered, feeling the tears form in her eyes.

“It was an accident,” he reassured, and Clarke gripped tightly onto him as they made their way down the stairs.

Thelonious landed on his side, and he wasn’t moving.

“Who is dialing 911?” Raven asked.

“We can’t call the cops. He’s already dead, Raven!” Murphy shouted, and Clarke slowly made her way to his body. The others were pacing around the front door, not daring to get too close to the body. But Clarke needed to make sure he was dead… that she _killed_ him.

“What? Are we just supposed to leave a dead body in Kane’s house?” Monty shouted, and Clarke heard Emori step behind her.

“Thank you,” she whispered, but Clarke couldn’t bring herself to look at her.

“Everyone just take a deep breath!” Bellamy snapped, and Clarke crouched down to take Jaha’s pulse.

“Clarke murdered him! This isn’t a time to take a deep breath!” Raven screamed, and Clarke realized she still felt a pulse. Before she could call out to the others, Thelonious’ other hand found Clarke’s throat and threw her to the ground.

 

_Bellamy_

 

“It was an accident. She was protecting Emori!” Murphy spat back, following Raven into the living room. Bellamy was still in shock from what just happened. But he knew they couldn’t call the police. Clarke would go down for it, and they were the intruders in this situation.

“Well, maybe it wouldn’t have happened if Monty and Bellamy had a better grip on Jaha,” Raven spat, and Bellamy clenched his jaw. Then, he heard a blood curdling scream from behind him. He turned around to see Jaha upright, as Emori was struggling to push him off… _Clarke_.

“Bellamy,” Murphy shouted, and Bellamy turned his head in time to see Murphy toss the trophy to him. He caught it, and sprinted over to Jaha, slamming the heavy metal trophy into his skull. He dropped the trophy onto the ground as soon as he realized one hit was enough.

Blood splattered everywhere, onto the wall, the floor, Emori, Clarke… Jaha’s body fell on top of Clarke, and Bellamy got a glimpse of Clarke’s blood-spattered, terrified face. She was still gulping for breath, gripping at her own throat with tears pouring down her face.

Raven went running past them to the bathroom, as Bellamy pushed Jaha off Clarke. He helped her to her feet, seeing Emori rush over to Murphy’s side. “You’re okay,” he whispered, resting his hand on her cheek. He glanced down at her neck, seeing the redness forming where Jaha’s hands had been.

 

_Echo_

 

She kept staring at her phone. She had the number dialed. All she had to hit was _call_.

She wasn’t sure what was wrong with her. An hour ago, she was fine with doing this. It was the plan. It was the best solution. Thelonious Jaha needed to die.

She clenched her eyes shut, the tears pouring out of her eyes anyway. She couldn’t get Marcus’ voice out of her head.

She knew that if she made this call, it would be over. Marcus would do everything he could to bring her to justice for this. She would lose him and Roan… her _family_.

But if she didn’t call, she would lose them anyway. Echo knew what kind of man Thelonious was. Even if he didn’t kill them, he’d kill those close to them. Maybe he’d kill the Griffin women. Roan and Marcus wouldn’t be able to recover from that. Or maybe he’d just kill Roan and Echo, to punish Marcus. Hell, he might even throw Murphy into the mix since he knew about Marcus’ connection to him.

There was no way to win. Echo lost Marcus either way. It’d be better if Thelonious was the only casualty, though. So, Echo picked up the phone.

Her thumb hovered over the button, but she couldn’t bring herself to push it. All she could hear was the sound of Marcus’ voice in her head. _You know, I don’t think you’re a monster_ , he once said.

If she pressed this button, and ordered the hit… he would think she was a _monster_. And there were too many people who saw her that way. But she couldn’t live with herself if he did too.

She dropped her phone back on the table, and rushed into the kitchen to pour herself the scotch she stole from his office. She chugged an entire glass, before falling to the kitchen floor, sobbing against the cabinets.

 

_Monty_

 

“This wasn’t an accident!” Raven growled as she crossed over toward Emori, and Murphy jumped in front of Emori defensively.

“Raven, leave Emori out of this,” Murphy warned.

“None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for her,” she replied, and Monty clenched his jaw, trying to resist the urge to point out that technically it was Bellamy who killed him. Emori didn’t make an attempt on Jaha’s life, she just tried to steal a stupid phone.

“And we can’t call the police,” Bellamy said, and Raven’s murderous gaze was now directed at him.

“We have to!” she growled, and Bellamy and Clarke exchanged a look.

“No, we don’t,” he replied.

“Easy for the murderer to say,” Monty spat, and Bellamy’s eyes widened in response.

“Watch it,” Bellamy growled, and Monty felt like he was going to throw up.

“Bellamy, maybe we should call the police,” Clarke said, and Bellamy turned back to glare at her.

“You’ll probably get a reduced sentence when they find out the two of you both took a crack at murdering him,” Raven spat, and Clarke had to physically hold Bellamy back.

“Clarke didn’t try to kill him, and Bellamy was just protecting her!” Emori shouted.

“Who cares why they did it? There’s still a dead body on the floor. They murdered him!” Raven screamed, and Monty rested his back on the wall, forcing himself to take a deep breath before he worked himself up into a panic attack.

Bellamy dragged Clarke toward the kitchen, and Monty kept his eyes on the body. There was so much blood. And it was in Clarke and Emori’s hair and on their faces… and Clarke almost died. That could have been any of them.

“Where are you two going?” Raven shouted, and Monty looked up to see Emori and Murphy rushing out the door. “Are you not going to help?” she asked, shouting at Monty, but all he could do was shake his head. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. It was just too much.

He clenched his eyes shut, hearing Bellamy and Clarke’s muffled talking from the kitchen, the front door slamming, and Raven screaming repeatedly for Bellamy and Clarke.

 

_Emori_

 

“We can’t just leave,” she whispered, as Murphy closed Bellamy’s car door behind him. She didn’t say anything when she watched him steal it out of his pocket, but she didn’t realize what he was planning.

“You can’t stay there. If the police come and you’re there, you’re done. You’ll be in prison the rest of your life. I can’t let that happen,” Murphy said quickly, as he turned the car on. She knew he only had moments before Raven came running out after them, so he pulled in reverse quickly, and started speeding down the street.

“We can’t run, either. They’re going to go to jail for this if we disappear,” Emori said, gripping his arm.

“Better them than us,” he snapped.

“It would have been me!” she shouted, and Murphy slammed on the brakes before turning to look at her with a broken look on his face. “Monty and Raven called to get you there and kept him from me, Clarke pushed me out of the way, and Bellamy killed him. If it weren’t for each one of them, I could be dead.”

She could see him think this over. The two of them always ran when things got tough, it’s the main thing they had in common. But she didn’t want to run this time.

“I’m taking you to a motel, and then I’ll come back to help them,” he decided, turning around with an irritated expression on his face.

 

_Bellamy_

 

“They ran off,” Raven muttered. He shook his head in disbelief. Although he wasn’t sure why was he surprised. Of course, Murphy ran.

“We need to go after them,” Clarke said, but Bellamy heard something outside the house. He stuck his hand up to signal for everyone to be quiet. There were all kinds of shouting, likely from everyone going to the bonfire. But that meant there were hundreds of witnesses that could place them at the house.

“We need to get out of here before anyone sees us,” Bellamy decided, glancing back at Clarke’s terrified face. He watched her closely as she crossed over to Monty.

“We’re more likely to get caught if we stay here,” Clarke whispered in such a sweet voice, that Bellamy momentarily forgot that just minutes ago she was being strangled.

“We?” Raven snapped, and Bellamy hushed her.

“Yes, we,” he growled.

“There is no ‘we’ here. Monty and I didn’t do anything,” she snapped.

“We both have fingerprints on the murder weapon,” Monty finally said, and Bellamy’s eyes flickered down to the trophy on the ground. If no one could find the murder weapon, any investigation could be dismissed. There could be a dozen reasons why Clarke’s DNA was on Jaha. Everything else could be explained away… as long as no one got the trophy.

Then, there was a loud pounding on the door.

“Out the back,” Bellamy snapped, and they all rushed toward the backdoor in the kitchen. They all started sprinting into the clearing, and Bellamy kept looking around for any potential witnesses. They were about halfway to the trees when Bellamy remembered the trophy.

He turned around and ran back to the house. It would be better if it was just one of them going back anyway. Less likely to be noticed. He was out of breath by the time he got back to the house, and quietly crept back in through the back door. He carefully looked down the hallway, looking for any sign that anyone was in the house.

He slowly approached Jaha’s body, and the trophy was still sitting in the pool of blood beside him.

“I’m sorry,” Bellamy whispered, after he picked the trophy up carefully.

 

_Raven_

 

She heard the sound of something buzzing. She jerked her head up to see Monty holding his phone.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she growled, storming over to him. She ripped the phone out of his hand, seeing that he was texting his fiancée.

“Was he about to call someone?” Murphy snapped, and both he and Clarke ran over to them.

“Just got a text from Harper. It’s not like I responded,” Monty replied defensively, and Raven narrowed her eyes at the phone.

“We agreed, no communication. I’m turning this off,” she muttered.

“We voted without you, since you had a breakdown!” Murphy mumbled, breaking away from them in a huff.

“Excuse me for reacting like a normal person would. Clearly, I’m not as used to this as you and Clarke are,” he growled, and Clarke immediately jumped in front of Murphy to keep him from stalking back to Monty.

“God, calm down. Stop being so fucking hysterical,” she snapped. She might be panicked, but at least she hasn’t spent the whole fucking night crying like Monty had.

“You calm down!” he screamed, and Raven was very close to going after him right then.

“Keep it down,” Bellamy ordered, and Raven whipped her head around to look at him… and he had that damn trophy.

“No,” she snapped, pointing at the weapon that still had blood on it.

“Take that back right now,” Monty ordered.

“No, we can’t leave it as it was,” Clarke interrupted, and Raven turned to glare at her. How could she possibly be on Bellamy’s side… of all the nights for them to agree… “It would hurt the prosecution’s case if no one can identify the murder weapon.”

“Don’t go all law student on us, Griffin,” Raven muttered.

“Thinking like law students is what will get us out of this. We know better than most how not to get caught,” Bellamy warned, stepping in front of Clarke protectively.

“So, Blake, what’s your plan?” she spat, stepping up to him defiantly.

“Clean it, put it back,” he said as if this was the easiest decision in the world… as if this wasn’t the decision that determined if they all got to live theirs lives outside of prison.

“You mean, after we go back for the body, right?” Murphy asked.

“It is one of the craziest nights on this campus. Have you lost your mind?” she growled, trying to see if Murphy was being serious right now.

 

_Marcus_

 

Abby sobbed into his shirt, and he rested his head on top of hers. He glanced around her living room, noticing a serious lack of family photos. Then again, things with Clarke have been rocky, he supposed. And it wasn’t like Jake’s widow would want to spend her days being bombarded with photos of him.

“Did he say why he did it?” she murmured, and he let his hand rub up and down her back.

“No. He didn’t,” he replied, and Abby glanced up at him with her tearful eyes. He swallowed, very aware of how close they were at this moment. He couldn’t remember the last time they were this physically close. She smelled exactly the same, she felt just as warm… and it was all too much. He started to pull away. “Look, Abby—"

“Please, don’t leave,” she pleaded, grabbing his hand in hers, and he knew he couldn’t just leave her. Not when she asked him like that. Like she _needed_ him.

“Okay,” he whispered, leaning back as Abby tucked herself back into his chest.

“I just can’t be alone. Not tonight,” she murmured.

 

_Monty_

 

“Smile,” Bellamy snapped, as he held the phone up to snap the selfie. Monty forced a smile, but it looked so creepy and forced… probably because just an hour ago he saw a man fall from the second floor and then get his head bashed in.

“Can we go now?” he muttered once Bellamy uploaded the photo. He yanked the phone out of his hands, noticing that Clarke had found them. And she was wearing his scarf. It would be cute, if Monty didn’t know what it was hiding. “Smile with your girlfriend,” he spat, holding the phone up.

“Princess wishes,” Bellamy teased as he pulled Clarke in for a photo, but Clarke did not look amused. She should look happier, since they were all building their damn alibi out here.

“Let’s go,” Clarke huffed, and Bellamy pulled the phone from Monty’s hands. The others joined up with them, with equally grim expressions on their faces.

“Time for the fun part,” Murphy growled, and Monty felt like he was going to throw up. They all marched in nervous silence back to Kane’s house.

Raven rushed past them all to take the trophy into the kitchen, probably to clean it off. Monty followed Bellamy toward Jaha’s body, but stopped before he got too close.

He thought this over. Technically, he didn’t do anything wrong tonight. He just showed up to get his trophy from Raven and tried to keep Jaha from hurting Emori. Everything after Clarke shoved him wasn’t because of him.

He stepped back, as Clarke and Murphy joined Bellamy, dragging Jaha’s body onto the rug.

He swallowed, remembering that the only thing keeping him from calling the police was that Raven had his phone. But he could do it after, tell them everything he saw happen. And he’d make sure to tell them why Emori was there and that Clarke was just defending herself and Bellamy was just protecting Clarke. They’d get in trouble for moving the body, but maybe they wouldn’t be convicted as murderers. It wasn’t like anyone came here to kill Jaha. And as long as Monty didn’t do anything to help them with the body, he wouldn’t end up in jail at least.

He watched as they rolled Jaha up in the rug, and Monty slid down to the floor, still shaking. When they tried to lift it, the three of them weren’t strong enough.

“Monty, come on,” Bellamy growled, and Monty just started shaking his head quickly.

“He’s not okay,” he heard Clarke whisper. “Raven, come in here,” she shouted, and Raven came in a few minutes later with the cleaned off trophy. Raven shot Monty a dirty look, but he didn’t understand why she was helping them. Sure, their DNA was on the trophy, but she just cleaned it off, so they should be fine. Raven didn’t do anything.

He watched them as all four of them struggled to lift the body, watched as Murphy fumbled to get the front door open, watched as they made their way outside.

He clenched his eyes shut, remembering how loud it was when Jaha’s body crashed to the floor, or how terrifying Emori’s scream was… he wasn’t sure he could ever be in this house again.

“Monty, everything is going to be okay,” he heard Clarke whisper, and he jerked his eyes open, realizing she was right in front of him now. He glanced behind her, seeing the other three cleaning up the blood on the ground and walls.

“I can’t. I can’t,” he stuttered out, and Clarke reached her hand out to him again. He shook his head, before wiping a few more tears from his cheeks.

“We have a good plan. And in a few hours, all of this will be over,” she said in a reassuring voice that only terrified Monty further.

 

_Roan_

 

“What kind of trouble are you in this time?” his mother asked, and Roan unclenched his jaw.

“I might not be in any trouble,” he pointed out for the hundredth time, before switching hands that he held the phone in. “I just figured it would be better to get ahead of this. The three of us have a Jaha problem, and Echo might do something that could cause some backlash. And if she doesn’t, then Marcus will.”

“Do I need to remind you that you’re supposed to be watching out for Thelonious?” Nia growled, and Roan bit his lip.

“There’s only so much I can do,” he muttered, even though he knew that wasn’t the truth. He hadn’t given a shit about his mother’s terms, and he really didn’t care if Thelonious Jaha went to prison at this point. He knew it wouldn’t be good for the Kingsley business, but they would get past it. “I already have my alternate identification in case things go south and I need to get out quickly. But I can’t control what Echo does tonight. If I try, she might kill me too. And Marcus doesn’t listen to reason,” he explained in a huff. Then, he heard his main phone ringing in the other room.

“I’ll do what I can on this end. But you better give me hourly updates,” she snapped, as Roan glanced down at his phone. It wasn’t Clarke, unfortunately. It was Ontari.

“I’ve got to go,” he murmured, before hanging up the burner phone. Then, he answered Ontari’s call. “What?”

“Where are you right now?” she asked, and he heard some muffled talking in the background… like she was in a crowd of people.

“At my apartment.”

“Not at Kane’s house? I thought your current case was so important that you’d be there 24/7,” she replied in an accusatory tone.

“Ontari, what do you want?” he shouted through gritted teeth.

 

_Clarke_

 

“And then, they’ll find the remains and do an autopsy. We’ll have missed something because none of us are professional hitmen unless there’s something I don’t know,” Raven spat, and Clarke ducked down further in her seat. “They’ll find some DNA from one of us, and whoever they get will sell the rest of us out for a reduced sentence.”

“Raven, the plan has already been made!” Bellamy shouted from the front seat, and Clarke felt a buzzing in her pocket. She pulled her phone out to see that it was Roan… again… and she promptly ignored the call.

“We didn’t vote on the plan. You just decided this was what we were going to do!” she screamed back, and Monty leaned closer to Clarke. “It’s not like any of us know how to burn a body!”

“Raven, it’ll work,” Clarke jumped in, and Bellamy turned back to look at her with curious eyes.

“How would the damn princess know?” Raven growled, and Clarke’s lips twitched. Raven had never called her that before, at least not with that viciousness in her voice.

“Just trust me. I know what to do,” Clarke snapped, ignoring the confused looks on Bellamy and Monty’s faces. She wasn’t about to explain how she knew this would work, not when everyone in this car was already suspicious and willing to jump on anyone at the drop of the hat.

The passenger side door opened, and Murphy came back in with the stuff.

“We could just bury him,” Raven huffed.

“The ground is frozen, dumbass,” Bellamy snapped, before Murphy threw something into the backseat that smacked Monty right in the face. She glanced over to see it was candy, before she rested her head against the window.

“You expect me to be able to eat right now?” Monty yelled.

“Give it to princess. Maybe it’ll help her get the taste of blood out of her mouth,” Monty muttered, and Clarke clenched her eyes shut. She really didn’t need the reminder of how much blood was on her tonight. “I just figured I should buy some other stuff so I looked less suspicious.”

“Back to burying the body,” Raven said.

“We have to burn it to get rid of the DNA,” Bellamy muttered.

“The smoke will be covered by the bonfire. We’re kind of lucky this happened tonight,” Murphy explained, and that was enough to jerk Clarke back to looking at him with a dropped jaw. “What? Aren’t we past the point of judgment now?”

 

_Murphy_

 

Of course, Monty didn’t fucking help them gather wood for the fire. Just like he didn’t help them carry the body or clean up the blood. Murphy knew he was going to be the first one to turn on them.

By the time he dropped the match, everyone was silent. It was the point of no return, in a lot of ways. Then again, tonight seemed to have a lot of those.

He didn’t bother breaking the silence anyway. He was too busy worrying about if Emori would follow his instructions to destroy that fucking phone. The last thing any of them needed was motive to kill Jaha. And it gave Clarke the most motive, which would drag Bellamy into it. Once Bellamy got arrested, Murphy had a feeling he’d turn on the rest of them to help him and Clarke look less like two people who plotted to kill the man who murdered Clarke’s father.

It’s not like the police would accept the true answer of what happened. After all, who would believe that Clarke accidentally pushed him to his almost death when there was a strong motive for her to do it purposefully? Throw Bellamy into the mix with his juvey record, and the whole night looks like two people with violent backgrounds tricking their four friends into helping them get away with murder. And Emori and Murphy wouldn’t look innocent either. With their records, it would be too easy for a low-level prosecutor to put them in jail for a good chunk of their adult life.

Clarke’s phone started buzzing, and Murphy’s head popped up to look at her.

“Tell Roan to fuck off,” he muttered, pacing around the fire. He had seen that Roan had been calling her at the house, but didn’t know what to make of it… unless he somehow knew what happened tonight.

“Roan is calling you?” Bellamy asked, and all the sudden, it clicked. Bellamy’s tone was too jealous to mean anything else. Clarke must have something going on with Roan.

“Answer it,” Raven said.

“Have you lost your mind?” Clarke snapped.

“No, she’s right. He’ll hear the fire in the background. It’ll strengthen our alibi,” Bellamy explained uneasily.

 

_Roan_

 

He kept his ear pressed to the phone, noticing that Clarke didn’t immediately ignore the call this time. When she answered, Roan let out a relieved sigh.

“What do you want?” she growled.

“Clarke, thank you for picking up,” he sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “Are you still at the bonfire?”

“Yeah, I’m still at the bonfire. Why do you keep calling me?”

“Honestly, I just want to see you. Look, some stuff has happened tonight,” he explained vaguely, knowing that Clarke can’t actually know what is happening with Marcus and Echo… and what that could mean for Roan. “Can I come see you? I want to explain everything about Ontari.”

“No, I’m busy tonight.”

“You’re literally at a bonfire, Clarke.”

“All of us were studying for exams and we wanted a break, so we went to the bonfire,” she corrected, and Roan’s jaw twitched, remembering all the photos they posted tonight. He couldn’t help but notice just how close she was standing to Bellamy.

“Are you still with Bellamy?” he asked before thinking better of it. He knew he had no right to be upset with her over this. And he wasn’t sure anything was going on between them. But he noticed how Bellamy had started looking at Clarke lately. He’d have to be blind not to.

“I said all of us, didn’t I? That includes Bellamy,” she growled, and Roan threw his head back.

“Look, I’m sorry, Clarke. I know I hurt you. I lied to you. I’ll do whatever it takes to earn your forgiveness. I just need you to tell me what that is. Please,” he pleaded as he paced back and forth in his bedroom. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know. I’ll do anything. Please, Clarke.”

Then, she hung up, and Roan threw himself back on the bed. Maybe getting her to hear all that would end up being enough for tonight. Maybe she just needed more time.

 

_Raven_

 

“You’re not taking that trophy back,” Bellamy snapped, following after Clarke. She rolled her eyes, before fixing them back on the fire in front of her. It was dying down… which meant Raven had to come to terms with the fact that she was about to help dismember a corpse. It wasn’t like she could really walk away at this point. She already cleaned off the murder weapon and helped carry the body and burned it. She was an accessory to murder… it was as simple as that.

“I have an idea. Just trust me,” Clarke replied, and Raven glanced back over at them, narrowing her eyes. This was the first time that things had slowed down enough for Raven to process what happened earlier that night. Bellamy didn’t have to kill Jaha. He was strong enough that he could have pulled him off Clarke, probably could have knocked him out or something… but his knee jerk reaction was to kill him. And that said _something._

She was realizing just how little she actually knew about Bellamy Blake. It wasn’t like he talked about his personal life, other than casually mentioning recent conquests to Murphy. He had been a little too calm tonight, a little too together. Even Clarke was showing signs of being rattled, and she was normally completely composed. But Bellamy was fine. And that couldn’t be normal.

“Want to help me get the trash bags ready?” Murphy asked, and Raven nodded before glancing over at Monty, who was still panicking. Of course, he wasn’t going to fucking help.

 

_Bellamy_

 

Raven was viciously taking whacks at Jaha’s body, and Bellamy did his best not to look. Instead, he just picked up the bags that Murphy filled, and carried them back to his car.

“What are we going to do about him?” Murphy asked him in a whisper, and Bellamy glanced over at Monty.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Monty has done the least tonight. He’s just a witness, really,” he huffed, and Bellamy looked at Monty again, looking him up and down. Murphy had a point. There was really nothing keeping Monty from talking, especially not with how viciously they had all been threatening him tonight.

“There’s nothing we can do, except pray he can get past this,” he muttered, noticing Clarke brush past them with a bag in her hands.

“Do you know who will actually go down for this if he talks?” Murphy snapped, and Bellamy looked back at Clarke with an uneasy feeling in his stomach. Clarke looked like she had motive, especially with those marks on her neck. If they found her DNA on Jaha somehow, they’d bring her in. And he wasn’t sure if a self-defense argument would help her, even though she didn’t even kill him.

“We’ll all go down,” he muttered.

“Do you think a jury would see it that way? You and I will look like two people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, Raven and Monty will argue they were brainwashed, but Emori and Clarke? They had motive, and they both have questionable pasts.”

Bellamy jerked his head to look back at Murphy in confusion. “Clarke doesn’t have motive,” he corrected, although he knew next to nothing about this allegedly questionable background. She was just a rich girl from a rich family. It’s not like she had a criminal history or anything. She should be clean.

“No, but that’s because she didn’t know what Emori did,” he explained, and Bellamy sucked in a breath. “That phone Emori went there for… it had proof that Jaha killed Jake Griffin.”

Bellamy immediately started looking for Clarke, finding her helping Raven now. As panicked as she was tonight, she would be even more of a wreck if she knew her dad was murdered by her family friend. He could only imagine how much of a mess she already was over the fact that Jaha tried to kill her tonight. He knew that Jake was a sensitive subject for Clarke, and he also knew that no one ever figured out who killed him.

“You can’t tell her. If things go south, she needs to be able to say she didn’t know,” Murphy said, and Bellamy’s stomach dropped. She needed to know. It was her _father_ after all. “Look, I know that you and I aren’t on the best terms. But if this all falls apart, Clarke and Emori have one hell of a motive, and you and I have backgrounds that are questionable at best.” Bellamy narrowed his eyes at Murphy, wondering how the hell he knew anything about Bellamy’s past. It wasn’t like he ever opened up about that shit. “We could spend the rest of our lives in prison just because Raven and Monty turned on us.”

He thought this over, wondering what it would take to keep the two of them quiet…

He glanced back at his car, seeing the trophy glimmer dimly in the moonlight. He turned back to Murphy. “I think I know how to shut them up.”

“I really hope this plan doesn’t involve another murder,” Murphy joked, and Bellamy hit the back of his head immediately. “I mean, that’s not the worst solution. We already are making a trip to the dumpster.”

“Shut up,” Bellamy muttered, as he turned to head to his car. He grabbed the trophy out of the backseat, before glancing back at the others. They were all too preoccupied with bagging up what was left of the body. So, he quickly banged the trophy against his car, careful to do it when the others started talking so they wouldn’t hear him. It took a few more strikes, but finally a small piece on the top broke off. He stuck it into his pocket, before tucking the trophy back into the backseat.

He forced himself to take a deep breath, reminding himself that it needed to be done. Monty and Raven needed to be directly tied to the murder weapon if they were to keep this quiet. He doubted either of them would have noticed that it wasn’t broken before it got cleaned anyway. With a piece of the weapon potentially on the body or in the house, they wouldn’t talk to the police.

 

_Murphy_

 

“Guys,” Bellamy shouted, and Murphy turned from the dumpster to look at him. “A piece of it broke off,” Bellamy explained, holding up the trophy.

“Maybe it broke off earlier. Monty, was it broken when you got it?” Clarke asked frantically.

“Don’t be stupid Clarke. It broke off when Jaha was struck with it,” Raven snapped, and Clarke immediately started ripping open the bags that were still on the ground. Murphy’s eyes flickered up to Bellamy’s, and he nodded, realizing what Bellamy had done.

It was smart, to be honest. Monty would think that there was a piece of the murder weapon that hadn’t been cleaned off out there, and keep his mouth shut. It wasn’t like he could tell the police where the body was if there was a chance his DNA could be found on a fragment of the trophy.

Raven, Clarke, and Monty all started tearing apart bags that they pulled from the dumpster, hyperventilating and crying as they did. Murphy realized that Bellamy didn’t tell Clarke what he did… which was probably for the best. Clarke was more likely to tell Monty the truth to try and reassure him.

Murphy and Bellamy both pretended to search the other bags, joining in the general panic the others were engaging in.

“Maybe it’s at the house,” he suggested, and Clarke started sobbing into Bellamy’s chest. Bellamy looked guilty, but did his best to comfort Clarke anyway. “We can keep an eye out next time we’re there. It’ll be fine.”

“Guys, we have to go,” Bellamy announced solemnly, and the two of them got to work getting the bags back together. He looked over his shoulder, seeing Clarke gathered with Monty and Raven in a huddle. He glanced back at Bellamy, seeing the guilt of the lie sinking into his face.

“It had to be done,” Murphy whispered, and he nodded.

Then, he heard Raven whisper, “We killed a man, Clarke.” That was what they needed… for Raven and Monty to recognize they were a part of this. That would keep them from opening their mouths.

They finished getting the bags into the dumpster, and Bellamy announced, “That’s the last of it guys. It’s done.”

“Can we go home now?” Monty asked, and soon, Murphy, Raven, and Monty were all heading to the car. Before getting in, he glanced back to see Bellamy and Clarke in a serious embrace.

“Bonnie and Clyde, you two coming?” he shouted, and they broke apart. Bellamy glared at Murphy, as he pushed past him to get in the front seat.

Once they were all seated, Bellamy turned back to look at all of them. “Tonight never happened. Everyone got that? If we are ever asked about tonight, we were all at Clarke’s apartment studying until early in the morning, and then we all went home to sleep in our own beds. It anyone talks, we all pin tonight on that person,” he threatened, before turning back around in his seat.

Murphy took a deep breath, realizing it was all finally over. He could go back to the motel and make sure Emori destroyed the phone and pretend none of this ever happened.

 

_Echo_

 

“What happened? Did you do it?” Roan asked frantically as soon as he answered the phone.

“No,” she said with a labored breath, resting her head against the cabinet in her kitchen. She was still reeling from her phone call with Kane. “But something happened, and Marcus needs us at the house.”

“You didn’t make the call?” he asked skeptically.

“I tried. But I couldn’t,” she whispered, although it didn’t seem to matter. Jaha went missing anyway. “Marcus thinks that Jaha ran. He said he needs me there,” she explained, although she probably wasn’t making sense. She was still drunk and reeling from the fact that Marcus doesn’t hate her for what happened earlier. “I need you to drive me. I’m a little drunk,” she confessed, and Roan started groaning.

“Of course, you fucking are,” he growled, and she heard him shuffling, probably getting dressed.

“You’ll come get me?” she whispered.

“Yeah,” he muttered.

“Roan, you know I’m sorry, right?” she had to say, sitting upright as she wiped the tears off her cheek.

“Echo, stop.”

“No, you need to hear this,” she murmured. “You’re my best friend. And I love you. I didn’t want to hurt you. I’m sorry,” she heaved.

“When you’re sober, you’ll take all of that back,” he teased, and a chuckle escaped her lips. He was probably right. Sober Echo would probably go back to giving him shit for brooding over Clarke or refuse to apologize for what she tried to do tonight. But she was drunk. So she let herself miss Roan and Marcus and feel bad for what she wanted to do. She let herself admit that they mattered to her, and that she’d be lost without her little family.

 

_Raven_

 

She knew she shouldn’t have gone to Luna’s apartment, but she didn’t know where to go. She couldn’t go back to her empty apartment, all alone. It was too much. She could be going to jail tomorrow. Her DNA was all over that broken piece of the trophy. It didn’t matter that she didn’t kill him. It looked like she did.

“Raven, what are you doing here?” Luna asked once she opened the door, and Raven leaned back into the wall, sobbing loudly. “Raven? What’s going on?”

“I screwed up, Luna,” she whispered. “I did something really bad. I didn’t know where to go.” Raven fell to the floor, shaking her head rapidly, just like Monty had done all night.

“Did something happen?” she asked, and Raven glanced up at Luna, seeing that she was now crouched down beside her. She forced herself to take a deep breath, but it was too shallow… it wasn’t enough. Raven felt like she was suffocating.

“I’m not a good person, Luna. I did something,” she murmured, keeping her eyes fixed on her knees in front of her, seeing dirt from when she had crouched down to bag up the remains just an hour ago.

“What did you do?” Raven glanced up at her, seeing the earnest concern in Luna’s eyes.

“I can’t tell you,” she explained, but she could see that wouldn’t be enough for Luna. She shouldn’t be here. After all, last time she called Luna, some other girl picked up the phone. Luna was done with Raven, and she didn’t deserve to have an accomplice to murder showing up on her doorstep. “Fuck, what am I doing here?” she muttered, standing up shakily.

“Raven, please come inside,” Luna pleaded, grabbing a hold of Raven’s wrist, keeping her from being able to run away.

“No, I can’t stay. You can’t know what I did. I can’t tell you,” she sobbed, resting her head against the wall. She could feel Luna’s hand on her back, and Raven knew she wasn’t explaining herself well. There was no way she could make Luna understand without telling the truth… which she couldn’t do.

“Please, talk to me,” she whispered, and Raven pushed herself off the wall to look at her.

“I can’t. I can’t,” she stuttered, tugging her hair with her fingers. “I’ll ruin your life. That’s what I do. That’s what we all do.” She couldn’t ruin Luna’s life. She already cheated on her when she hooked up with Anya, and then lied to her about it. Raven didn’t deserve Luna. Luna deserved so much better, and Raven was only going to make it all worse.

“Raven, you’re not making any sense,” she murmured. “Will you come inside, please? For me?”

“No, I’m just gonna hurt you again,” Raven said, rubbing the tears off her face.

“It’ll hurt me more if you go right now,” Luna said, and Raven jerked her head up to look at her. She couldn’t hurt Luna any more… she couldn’t. She knew she should leave, but maybe it would be worse for Luna if she did. She didn’t know. She couldn’t think straight. All she could see was blood, the marks on Clarke’s neck, the broken trophy, the body… all of it was blinding her. “For me, please come inside,” she pleaded.

 

_Clarke_

 

“I’m not here to talk,” she interrupted, putting her purse down on the coffee table. She took a deep breath, reminding herself that this was the only way she could get that trophy back in the house. And it wasn’t like there was any DNA on the trophy anymore anyway. Roan couldn’t get hurt. “Earlier, you said you would do whatever it took for me to forgive you. You mean that, right?” she asked, feeling guilty that she was using his own guilt against him like this.

Then again, they all did horrible things tonight. She was already a monster at this point. And monsters use innocent people.

He touched her arm, and Clarke couldn’t help but shudder. Every time someone touched her tonight, it took her back to Jaha’s hand finding her throat and throwing her to the ground. Luckily, Roan stepped back, probably sensing that Clarke was uncomfortable.

“Of course. Anything,” he pleaded, and Clarke could see he was telling the truth… which made her chest ache.

“I did something stupid tonight, and I need you to fix it for me, okay?”

“What did you do?”

“You don’t get to ask questions,” she snapped, before immediately regretting her tone. He didn’t understand what kind of night she had… he had no reason to understand why she was so tense and jumpy. It probably just looked like she was being a bitch. “So, I got caught up in the stuff with my mom and this job and—” she cut herself off, realizing she was about to list Roan off as one of her problems… and knew that was just a little too much to dive into tonight. One day, when she wasn’t terrified of going to jail for murder, she would hash things out with him, but not tonight. Not when she still had Jaha’s DNA on her. “I just… I thought I was going to fail Kane’s exam and I freaked out and stole the trophy that Monty turned in before Kane got to see it. It was stupid and maybe I was just too sleep deprived to think better of it. But I don’t want Kane to know. So I need you to get it back in the house for me.” She pulled the trophy out of her purse, extending it toward Roan.

“Okay…” he agreed, taking it from her, and Clarke grabbed her stuff before going toward the door. “Clarke, where are you going?”

“I’ve got people waiting for me,” she blew him off.

“Who?” he asked, and she glanced back at him, realizing he was just going to keep asking questions if she didn’t shut this down.

So, she decided to play the trump card to shut him up for good. “Does it matter? It’s not like I’m married or something,” she said as viciously as she could, before slamming the door behind her. She rushed toward the stairs before Roan could catch up to her, but she knew he wouldn’t follow her after she said something like that.

Once she got into Bellamy’s car, she broke into a sob.

“What happened?” he asked with a concerned look on his face.

“It doesn’t matter. Just drive,” she whispered, burying her face in her hands. It wasn’t enough that she shoved Thelonious down to the first floor of Kane’s house, almost killing him. It wasn’t enough that Bellamy killed him just to protect Clarke. It wasn’t enough that Clarke threatened Monty and Raven multiple times tonight, scaring them into helping her cover it all up. It wasn’t enough that Clarke burned Jaha’s body or helped Raven dismember what remained afterwards. But now… she literally manipulated someone innocent in all of it, who wasn’t even there when it happened, into taking the murder weapon from her. Someone she cared about, even after everything he did to her.

She kept reminding herself that it wouldn’t implicate Roan. And if he ever got into trouble, Clarke would come forward and admit that she tricked him into it. She wouldn’t let him go down for anything she was responsible for. But it still felt horrible to realize she was a monster. That she spent all this time trying to prove she was nothing like her mom’s family, only to use the same tactics they taught her to get away with murder.

“Only a few more minutes and you’ll be safely back in your apartment,” Bellamy reassured, and Clarke turned to look at him.

“Wait, don’t take me home,” she pleaded, and his head turned to look at her in confusion. “I can’t. I can’t just be there all alone.”

 

_Monty_

 

He turned his phone back on once he locked his apartment door behind him. He put the deadbolt in too, just to be safe. He checked the voicemail Harper left for him.

“Hey, Monty. I know you turned your phone off so you could focus on studying or whatever, but I saw the photos your friends posted from the bonfire of you and I’m glad you got to take a break,” she said cheerily, and Monty leaned back against the door, before sinking down to the floor. “Anyway, I have great news. We got the venue we wanted!” Monty felt the tears start to pour back down his face, realizing that he was never going to be able to tell Harper about what happened tonight… that he was going into this marriage with a massive lie.

He checked the second message, and put it on speaker. “Hey, I know I just called you, but I realized I forgot the other big news. I found my dress today! I mean, I can’t show you it, because it’s bad luck and all, but you’re going to love it,” she cheered, and through all the tears streaming down his face, Monty still managed to smile. “God, I love you so much. I can’t wait to marry you. Okay, now go study your ass off so I can become a trophy wife of a bigshot lawyer one day. Just kidding, I’m not the trophy wife type. But I still want it to be an option. Okay, bye! Love you!”

Monty tried to get himself off the floor. He needed to sleep. He needed to get whatever evidence that was on him off in the shower. But he couldn’t bring himself to stand up.

 

_Bellamy_

 

He had given Clarke one of his shirts to change into for when she got out of the shower. Bellamy changed quickly, before walking back into his living room. He was terrified of when it was time to go to sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, his mind flashed to seeing Clarke on the ground with Jaha’s hands around her throat.

He shook that image out of his head, although it came back every time he looked at Clarke’s neck. It reminded him too much of the marks he would find on his mom all those years ago.

It should scare him that he didn’t even hesitate when he struck Jaha. It didn’t occur to him to just pull him off her. He didn’t think through anything he was doing. He didn’t start thinking until after it was too late, after he had Clarke in his arms, checking to see if she could breathe.

He didn’t realize that he had started crying until he heard Clarke moving toward him. He glanced up at her, seeing her damp hair from the shower and smeared eyeliner.

“Uh, you can sleep in my bed tonight,” he offered, looking away from her before he saw her neck again.

“Where are you sleeping?” she asked, her voice sounding softer than it had all night.

“I’ll take the couch. You just get some sleep,” he mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

“I don’t want to be alone, Bell,” Clarke murmured, and his eyes flickered back to hers, realizing what she was asking. He swallowed, realizing that maybe he would feel better if he wasn’t alone all night either. So he stood up and made his way back into his room. They didn’t speak as they crawled into his bed, and he didn’t try to touch Clarke. He saw how she kept jumping all night, and knew she wasn’t doing okay. He didn’t want to startle her or cause her to have another panic attack.

He stared at his ceiling for a few minutes, terrified to look over at Clarke. Looking at her neck was just a reminder that he almost lost her tonight. But he wasn’t sure he could forgive himself for what he did. He didn’t just take a man’s life. He lied, to all of them. He manipulated everyone, forcing them to help him cover it all up. And he could say he did it all for Clarke, but he was also saving his own ass too. After all, he’s the one that killed Jaha in the first place. And Jaha had too many friends in the world of law. If he went to trial, he would get convicted, regardless of why he did it.

“Bellamy,” Clarke whispered, and he turned his head to look at her. She had a concerned look on her face as she propped herself up on her elbows. “Hey, talk to me,” she said, before wiping the tears off Bellamy’s cheek.

“What can I say, Clarke?” he asked. “I killed him. I am a murderer.”

“No, you’re not,” Clarke snapped, gripping his face between her hands.

“We did a lot of horrible things tonight,” he said, gazing at her tearstained face. He could barely make out her blue eyes in the darkness, but could see the tender way she was looking at him. She shouldn’t be looking at him like that. Not when he had become a monster.

“If you need forgiveness, I’ll give that to you. You’re forgiven,” she pleaded, her eyes welling up with tears, and Bellamy leaned forward to press his forehead against hers.

“Clarke, I’m a monster.”

“No, you’re not. You kept me safe,” she whispered, before pressing her hesitant lips to his. His eyes bored into hers as she pulled away, and he could still feel the ghost of her soft lips on his. “Bellamy, I know a lot of monsters. You’re not like them.”

Bellamy captured her lips with his, wrapping his arms around her quickly. She was so soft against him like this, so small wrapped up in his arms. And he was terrified she was going to pull away. But she didn’t. Her fingers found their way in his curls as she pulled him as close to her as possible. And he clung to her, his lips crashing into hers like his life depended on it.

She rolled on top of him, her legs resting on either side of his waist, as her chest melted against his. He ran his fingers through her damp hair, pushing it out of her face as she sucked on his bottom lip. He wrapped his other arm around her back, holding her securely against him.

He wasn’t sure if he was strong enough to let her go after tonight. He felt sick to his stomach when he started to drive toward her apartment, realizing he’d have to be away from her. He needed her. He needed to know she was safe.

He knew he should probably slow things down. Clarke was grinding into him slowly, and she was so soft and warm and beautiful… he couldn’t help but be affected by it. He always wanted her, anyways. But he didn’t want this to happen like this. Not when they were both frantically holding onto each other in a desperate attempt to comfort themselves after what they did tonight.

“Clarke,” he murmured, as her lips travelled down his throat. “We shouldn’t.”

Her head popped up and her blue eyes beamed at him… and he was lost. She was too beautiful, even in the dark. “Please,” she whispered, and he tried to start listing all the reasons they should put a stop to this in his head. Neither of them were in a good state of mind at the moment. A man died tonight. Clarke almost died tonight. If tonight hadn’t have happened, they wouldn’t be here. They’d be back in her apartment being passive aggressive to each other because Clarke pulled away and it hurt Bellamy’s pride.

But those reasons all disappeared, because of the beautiful words slipping from Clarke’s soft lips. Words that made him forget he was a monster and that she almost died. Words that made him forget there was a horrible world outside his bedroom walls where neither of them were ever really safe. Words that made him forget that he could lose everything if he made just one mistake tonight.

“I need you.”

And in that moment, he was hers.

His lips were crashing into hers desperately, gripping her tightly in his arms. He couldn’t get close enough to her. She rolled them onto her back, pulling Bellamy on top of her frantically. His lips didn’t leave hers as his hands travelled up her sides, tugging the t-shirt he had given her up so his fingers could feel the soft skin underneath.

He grinded himself against her, letting his hands slip down to her bare thighs.

“Please,” she whispered against his lips breathlessly, and Bellamy pulled away so he could start tugging her panties down. She lifted her hips for him, and he looked back up at her once he tossed her panties to the side. He caught a glimpse of her neck again, and his heart stopped for a moment. “Bell,” Clarke said, sitting up with a concerned look on her face.

“Sorry,” he murmured, and Clarke had her soft hands on his cheeks. His eyes flickered up to meet hers, seeing her wide eyes studying him closely.

“I’m okay, remember?” she said, and he nodded. He knew that. Logically, he understood that Clarke was physically okay. “Stay with me,” she pleaded, her eyes begging with him. He kissed her again, this time more gently as he lowered her back down on the bed.

He pulled back, watching her gaze back up at him. His eyes trailed back down to her neck. “Does it still hurt?” he had to ask.

“Not as much,” she replied, and his jaw clenched. “Give me your hand,” Clarke ordered, grabbing his wrist. He furrowed his brows, as Clarke moved his hand to her neck. He watched her eyes closely, looking for any sign that she was in pain. But there was none. Just the same look that she gave him in the car… telling him that she was scared but that she trusted _him_. “You’re not going to hurt me,” she reassured, resting her hand on top of his.

“Okay,” he murmured, before leaning down to kiss her lips gently. Then, he kissed her less gently. And before he knew it, they were clinging to each other like before, tearing off what remained of their clothing. He was blindly fumbling around in his drawer searching for a condom, not wanting to remove his lips from Clarke for even a moment.

And when he first slipped inside of her, it was almost too much for him. Too warm, too tight, too perfect… His kisses became too messy, as his lips dragged across her skin. She was moaning quietly, right into his ear. Her hands were clawing at his back, desperately clinging harder to him as he thrust in and out of her.

They didn’t loosen their hold on each other for a moment. Not when Clarke’s head was thrown back and she was screaming his name. Not when Bellamy buried his face into her chest, stifling his own grunts. Not after he kissed her slowly as they both caught their breath. And certainly not when Clarke started to drift off to sleep, her naked body tucked into his side as her hand gripped onto his side and his arm was snaked around her while he peppered the top of her head with kisses.

Bellamy was spent, exhausted… but sleep didn’t come as easily for him.

There was too much in his head. Too much of the night haunted him. And worst of all was that he was keeping a secret from all of them… two if he counted the trophy.

 

**Hours Earlier**

They were about halfway to the trees when Bellamy remembered the trophy.

He turned around and ran back to the house. It would be better if it was just one of them going back anyway. Less likely to be noticed. He was out of breath by the time he got back to the house, and quietly crept back in through the back door. He carefully looked down the hallway, looking for any sign that anyone was in the house.

He slowly approached Jaha’s body, and the trophy was still sitting in the pool of blood beside him.

“I’m sorry,” Bellamy whispered, after he picked the trophy up carefully.

“I’m not,” he heard a low voice say. He turned his head, seeing Professor Kane calmly sitting in the living room, holding a glass in his hand. “And you shouldn’t be sorry either.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To my beloved fanfiction wife, I apologize for deceiving you. Your most recent theory is correct, but I wanted you to be surprised about the twist at the end. Surprise?


	11. The Right Thing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so this chapter is formatted a little differently. Only got two POVs this time, and most of it is Marcus' POV anyways since that's what all ya'll have got to be worrying about. 
> 
> For the next few chapters, there aren't going to be any flash forwards but there will be flashbacks. Next chapter will pick up about where last chapter left off, if that makes sense idk dudes. This chapter is a bit shorter than normal, but I figured I should get it up now before Thanksgiving comes in and I forget to update for a few days. Also, like last chapter, this chapter does not have a chill moment. It's more chill than last chapter by comparison... but still not all that chill. Moral of the story is that I have no chill and am getting way to excited about my murder fic. 
> 
> Woo! Thanks for all the feedback! Glad I surprised most of you last update. When I reread it, I immediately start singing whatcha say as soon as Marcus says, "I'm not."

_Marcus_

 

He was shaking as he drove over to Roan’s apartment, his mind flooded with memories of Jake Griffin… the guy who constantly outsmarted Marcus at Arkadian… the guy who easily got whatever he wanted without even working too hard to get it… the guy who Marcus thought fell into such a perfect life. But it didn’t end up being a perfect life. He was killed by one of his closest friends. And Marcus could be next.

Maybe it didn’t matter how good of a guy Jake was. In the end, it didn’t seem to matter.

When he walked into Roan’s apartment, he and Echo were screaming at each other.

“That’s enough!” Marcus shouted, and Echo’s eyes widened at the sight of him. He could see a bit of hope there. There was still a chance that he could turn Echo around on the Jaha issue. He knew there were risks involved with his own plan… but it was the _right_ way to handle things.

Marcus could barely hear Roan as he spoke to him about Echo… about how quickly she had fallen apart over this. But Roan didn’t see what Marcus saw. Echo had been falling apart since Wells went missing. Her instincts were right from the beginning. She knew something was wrong, that he was dead, that he was murdered, that Jaha was lying to them… Marcus still wasn’t sure that Jaha was the one to kill Wells, but he was certainly making it hard to keep believing in him, especially with all the ways he had been trying to sabotage Emori’s case… likely to take any suspicion off him.

Echo had been onto something since the beginning, and Marcus ignored her for too long… and it was making her desperate. And as everyone realized she was right, she had convinced herself that she was also right about her solution. Marcus couldn’t let Echo kill him. They’d lose Echo and it wasn’t the right thing to do.

And while Marcus Kane didn’t owe much to Jake Griffin, he did owe it to him to do this the _right_ way.

He said what he thought was right, what he thought would convince her it was wrong. But it didn’t work. She left… and Marcus didn’t even try to chase after her. He lost.

Roan tried to figure out a way to stop her, to fix this… but Marcus gave up. Slowly, the appealing part of Echo’s plan seeped into his brain. Legally, they’d probably never beat Jaha. Marcus could bust out every weapon in his arsenal, and Jaha would get off on some technicality. And they’d all be punished for it. But if he just died… if he just disappeared… all of it could be over. He could pin Wells’ murder on Thelonious and get Emori off, he could tell Abby and Clarke about Jake without fearing that they would try to get revenge on Thelonious, Echo wouldn’t get into trouble for burying that evidence on him… it was such a simple, tempting, and horrible solution.

He tried to shake it out of his head as he drove home. He was a man that believe in the law. He taught the law. He had to believe that law would be how he got justice for Jake.

He had a little too much time to think this over, especially with how bad the traffic was on campus because of the bonfire. He watched excited students running around in their school colors, without a care in the world. He remembered going to this same bonfire with Jake and Abby, sleep deprived from studying for finals but desperately needing a break. He remembered how simple everything used to be. The law was the law. Murder was murder. And Marcus wanted to do good.

Yet now… he kept thinking that everything could be simple again if Jaha was just gone.

He glanced up at the red light, and noticed a familiar car in the turning lane adjacent to him. He ducked down, since he didn’t want to deal with whatever it was that Ontari was up to this time. Once she drove past him, he sat back up, and turned onto his street. There were hundreds of students running up and down the sidewalks, gathering for the massive bonfire.

There were no cars in his driveway when he pulled in. He took a deep breath, before opening his car door. If Thelonious were still here, Marcus could be in for hell. If he wasn’t… well, Marcus knew what that meant too.

When he opened the door, his eyes immediately spotted the body, draped in blood. He quickly closed the door behind him, realizing that he didn’t succeed in convincing Echo. He knew that was likely, that he can only save the ones who want to be saved… but he hoped that in the end she would choose the right thing.

He took a deep breath, before stepping into the living room. He was careful not to get too close to the body, fearing any DNA evidence landing on the body. He shakily poured himself a glass of scotch, before turning back around to face the body of Thelonious Jaha.

It wasn’t like Echo to just leave a body, and if she had hired someone, it would have been a professional. Marcus sat down, realizing this meant Echo would have to come back to clean up. He would wait for her. He would talk to her.

_He would help her._

The decision was already made. He’d help her get rid of the body and then he’d send her far away. It’s what had to be done. The man was already dead.

And that’s when Marcus realized something horrifying: he wasn’t upset to see his friend lying dead in front of him. No, he was _relieved._

When the back door creaked, Marcus sucked in a breath. He knew this was his last chance to bolt, his last chance to not be a part of this… but he wasn’t going to leave Echo all alone in this.

But it wasn’t Echo. He sat in terrified silence as he watched Bellamy Blake carefully step toward the body. _Echo didn’t do this_.

Bellamy crouched down to pick the trophy up off the blood-soaked floor, and Marcus realized that must have been the murder weapon. He blinked a few times, thinking this over. If Bellamy meant to kill Thelonious, he would have brought and used something more efficient than that trophy.

“I’m sorry,” Bellamy whispered to Thelonious, his voice breaking slightly. Marcus leaned forward, paying close attention to the pained look on the boy’s face… he didn’t want to do it.

Marcus Kane thought back to the files that Echo made on all the kids before he hired them… remembering Bellamy’s skeletons in his closet. Of all the kids, excluding Clarke for obvious reasons, he had the darkest past. Marcus tried not to think of it much, tried not to let his heart ache for the competitive intern who was usually too proud to admit he made mistakes.

But he still felt for him. He couldn’t imagine what it was like for Bellamy, to watch his mother be abused like that for years, and likely his little sister too. He didn’t blame him for stabbing that monster, for defending the people he loved.

And he could see it in Bellamy’s eyes from time to time. Some clients hit a little too close to home for him. He saw the pained look in his eyes as Emori recounted the stories of her abusive foster homes. And he saw it now in his terrified eyes.

And without rationalizing it, Marcus had already decided he was going to help him.

“I’m not,” Marcus said finally, and Bellamy’s terrified face turned in his direction. “And you shouldn’t be sorry either.”

His lips parted, and Marcus could see him struggle to get his words together. “It was an accident,” he finally stuttered out, tears forming in his eyes, and Marcus jumped out of his seat.

“Breathe for me,” Marcus whispered, crossing over to him. “Tell me what happened.”

“He was strangling Clarke. He was going to kill her,” he said frantically, the tears streaming down his face. Marcus stepped around the body to meet him, resting his hands on Bellamy’s shoulders.

“Why was he strangling Clarke?” he asked calmly, rubbing his thumbs in circles, trying to comfort him. Bellamy needed to stay calm if this was going to work. “Deep breath.”

Bellamy sucked in a breath, looking at Marcus with skeptical eyes.

“Bellamy, I’m going to help you. Don’t worry. You can tell me what happened,” he whispered, watching Bellamy’s expression melt slowly.

“It started because Emori came here to steal some phone,” Bellamy sighed, and Marcus swallowed. He should have seen that coming. Emori gave him the perfect evidence to get her off the hook and he didn’t use it. Of course, she would try to steal it back. Marcus forced himself to take a deep breath after realizing that if he had just turned in the phone immediately, maybe whatever happened could have been prevented. “Raven and Murphy were here for some reason and they called Murphy. Murphy said whatever was on that phone was worth Jaha hurting Emori over, so Clarke, Murphy, and I rushed over here as fast as we could.”

Marcus could feel his own face go pale, realizing that all the kids were likely a part of this. But none of them were here… where were they?

“Some of us held Jaha back as Murphy got to Emori. But Jaha broke out of our grip and was going to attack her.”

“Is she okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, Clarke pushed her out of the way,” Bellamy said, and Marcus bit his lip, nodding along. “And Clarke pushed Jaha away, but she pushed too hard and he…”

“Bellamy.”

“She pushed him over the railing. It was an accident though,” Bellamy murmured, shaking his head.

“But he didn’t die,” Marcus realized, glancing back at Jaha.

“We thought he was dead. And next thing I know, his hands are around Clarke’s throat,” he said before breaking into a sob. Marcus took the trophy out of Bellamy’s hands, before extending his arms to Bellamy. Bellamy was hesitant at first, but slowly, his resolve fell apart and he buried his face into Marcus’ shoulder.

“Shh, it’s okay. You’re okay,” he whispered, patting Bellamy’s back. He didn’t need Bellamy to tell him any more of the story. Clearly, he took the trophy and bashed it into Thelonious’ head, killing him. “Listen to me closely,” Marcus whispered, and Bellamy pulled away slowly with a skeptical look on his face. “You are going to go back to the others. You will convince them to come back for the body. It can’t stay here.”

“What if they—”

“They’ll help you. You just have to stay calm. They’re going to be scared. They’re going to look for someone calm to tell them what they need to do. That needs to be you,” Marcus explained. “If he was strangling Clarke, her DNA is under his nails. Everyone’s DNA could be on the body. The only solution is for you to burn it.”

“The bonfire,” Bellamy whispered, looking over toward the front of the house. Marcus nodded, realizing this was the perfect night for this. Any smoke they created would be attributed to the bonfire. No one would suspect a thing.

“Once it’s burned, bag up the remains.”

“Why are you doing this?” Bellamy asked, furrowing his brows.

“Because I let you all into my home and it was my job to make it a safe place for all of you. I brought him here, and some of you could have died because of it,” Marcus explained, and Bellamy cocked his head in confusion. “And now I’m going to take care of you. All of you.”

“If the police find out you were here, you’ll be blamed. You could go to jail for this,” Bellamy said.

“I’m a lawyer, Bellamy. I am an expert on how to get away with murder. I will be just fine. And so will you, if you listen to me.”

“Professor Kane…”

“Trust me. Go back to the others, get them to help, and don’t you dare tell them that I know,” he warned. He had to believe that Bellamy wouldn’t turn on him… but the others… he wasn’t sure. If things went south, the less people who knew about his involvement the better.

Marcus broke into a sob as soon as he heard the backdoor shut behind Bellamy. He had to trust that they were all going to be okay, that Bellamy had at least Clarke on his side and the two of them could get the others to fix this.

Once he was calm, he snuck to his car, unnoticed by passersby. He took a deep breath as he pulled out of his driveway.

The first thing he needed was to get an alibi. And before he thought better of it, he found himself on Abby Griffin’s doorstep.

The truth about Thelonious was enough to get him inside, and she needed to know anyway. She heaved into his shirt, clinging to him like her life depended on it.

He found his mind drifting to Jake again, wondering what he would think about what Marcus was doing. Jake was a man of the law, always trying to do the right thing. Marcus was fairly certain that’s exactly what got him killed, after all.

But he was also a father and a husband, the kind who would do anything to protect the people he cared about. Maybe he would understand why Marcus helped Bellamy or why Marcus was willing to do the same for Echo. And in a way, he was honoring Jake. If this all fell apart, his daughter would get thrown into the lion’s den. Even if she didn’t know the truth, no one would believe that Jaha’s death was an accident. Not when a daughter avenging her father’s death made such a better story.

He was about to lie to so many people, probably even his own family, Echo and Roan. And Jake would never be okay with that.

But it didn’t matter how the honorable Jake Griffin would have fixed everything. He was dead. And Marcus was all any of them had left. He’d protect them all in his own damned way, even if he became a monster in the process.

“Does Clarke know?” Abby whispered, looking up at Marcus with wide eyes.

“Not yet. I was going to tell her in the morning.”

“Can I be the one to tell her? I think it needs to come from me,” she pleaded, and Marcus nodded. That was probably best.

By the time he got home, it was like nothing had happened. The only thing different was that his rug was missing. He bit his lip, as he went upstairs. He could order the same rug to replace it and no one would notice the difference. Once he was in the room Jaha had been staying in, he grabbed all the things that Jaha would have grabbed before running. He grabbed his phone, and broke it immediately. He shoved his wallet and house keys and handfuls of clothes into a duffle bag. He ran into his room, and tossed it into his closet. He buried it underneath a stack of his dirty clothes, hoping that would be enough to trick anyone who came into the house.

He purposefully messed up Thelonious’ room a bit, trying to make it look like someone frantically packed up their bag and ran off, taking only the essentials. He made sure to leave the drawer that Emori had opened to find the phone like it was, so it would look like Thelonious stole the evidence and ran.

Once everything was in place, he made the first phone call, leaving a lengthy message on Jaha’s phone, pleading for him to come back.

The second phone call he made was to Echo, freaking out about Thelonious running, begging her to come to the house.

The third phone call he made was to Thelonious again, this time more frantic than before. He apologized more, and told him that he believed him about everything, that he didn’t think he was a bad guy.

The fourth phone call he made was to Abby, and his fake hyperventilating became real as he noticed a speck of blood in his kitchen sink. Once he got off the phone, he cleaned it up with bleach.

As he waited for Echo and Roan, he kept calling Thelonious, over and over again. He needed to establish that he completely believed that Thelonious Jaha ran away.

“What happened?” Roan asked frantically as they burst into the living room.

“I don’t know. I told you about the fight we had, and I guess he just got spooked and ran off,” Marcus mumbled, brushing his fingers through his hair.

“He just ran?” Roan asked skeptically, and Marcus glanced over at Echo who was standing by the stairs with a curious expression on her face.

“Echo, all of his things upstairs are gone now,” he reassured, knowing that would be the first thing she would check on. She paced into the living room with crossed arms, and then immediately looked down at the ground with a confused look on her face. When she looked back up at him, her eyes were narrowed at him.

“Well, if you don’t mind, I’ll go see if he left anything behind,” she said.

“No need. I’ve already torn apart the entire upstairs,” he replied, and she nodded. Marcus glanced back at Roan, who had a similarly skeptical look on his face.

They settled down at the kitchen table, but Marcus felt uneasy about how suspiciously Echo was looking at him. The kids were good and thorough… there was no reason for her to be suspicious.

“You know, in case something happens to him, you’ll need to get your alibi in order,” Echo sighed, and Marcus knew that look on her face. She had already figured out that he was dead, just like she did with Wells.

“He ran. I don’t need an alibi,” Marcus replied, making sure he seemed to be unconcerned with looking suspicious in a crime that officially did not happen.

“Well, I would still advise you to put yours together,” Echo argued.

“If he decided to murder Jaha, don’t you think a smart person who knows the law would have made it his first priority to establish an alibi?” Roan snapped on his behalf, and Marcus nodded along. Although, Roan seemed unnerved too… not in the same way as Echo, of course. But like he was trying to hide something… Marcus blew it off, deciding that was an issue for another day.

“He’s been staying here, and all three of us were out of the house tonight, and we’re the only people who had motive to kill Jaha,” Marcus explained, and that’s when he noticed Roan duck his head slightly. He fixed his eyes back on Echo, focusing on one problem at a time. “Also, there is no body, Echo! It’s far more likely that he ran, that he’s off in some country where the feds can’t get to him. Unless you think someone else had motive to kill him…”

“I can’t think of anyone else. What about you, Roan?” Echo deflected, raising an eyebrow at Roan, who had been far too quiet.

“I think Jaha ran away. It’s not like we know anyone else who would want to kill him,” Roan replied smoothly, and that was when Marcus knew something was off. Roan never took sides this quickly.

“See?” Marcus groaned, before deciding to leave another voicemail for Jaha to sell the ruse. He went back into his office, making sure to speak loudly enough for them to hear him.

Echo and Roan stayed in the kitchen for a few more minutes, having an argument with hushed voices, and Marcus stood by his doorway, listening in. Roan was doubling down on the theory that Jaha ran. And Echo… she was now convinced that Roan killed Jaha or helped Marcus do it. He hit his head on the wall repeatedly, listening to them threaten each other, and he thought about telling them the truth…

Roan would play along, practical enough to see that Jaha disappearing wouldn’t be traced back to them and it would protect Clarke. Echo on the other hand… she had no loyalty to any of the kids. Her loyalty was to Marcus and Roan, and after tonight, it was a bit shaken at best. He had no way of knowing if she would play ball.

Then, he heard Roan stomp toward the front door.

“Where are you going?” Marcus shouted.

“Home. Jaha ran. That’s none of our damn concern,” Roan growled as he tugged on his coat. Marcus stepped out of his office, glancing over at Echo’s worried face. Then, the front door slammed shut.

He and Echo stood there in silence for a few moments, and he studied her carefully. He suddenly realized his mistake. Echo had spent most of the last twenty-four hours threatening to murder Jaha… which means that when he disappeared, Echo should have been the first person he suspected…

“Echo, I need to ask you something, and please don’t get angry with me,” he said calmly, and Echo whipped her head around to look at him. “Did you… did you make that phone call?” He knew she didn’t. Otherwise, some hitman would have shown up at his house tonight and Echo would be long gone.

“No,” she whispered, her eyes pleading with him. He knew it wasn’t fair to manipulate her like this, to accuse her when he knew she did the right thing. But he needed to get her off the scent, to seem completely innocent of all this. And an innocent person who didn’t know any better would obviously suspect the person who kept threatening to kill him. “I promise, I didn’t. I tried to, but I couldn’t.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” he murmured, stepping toward her as the tears started to fall. “I believe you, Echo. I know you wouldn’t lie to me.”

“I swear I didn’t,” she replied, and Marcus nodded along.

“Of course, you didn’t. I knew you wouldn’t. Because you’re a good person now. I knew you would do the right thing,” he reassured, and her entire body relaxed in response.

He sent Echo back home and tried to get a few hours of sleep… but he couldn’t. There were too many things he had to do… quickly.

When the sun rose, he texted the kids to meet him at the house, and asked Murphy to bring Emori. He got a text from Clarke explaining that she had to meet with her mother first, and his stomach dropped. That wasn’t going to be an easy meeting…

He stayed calm when everyone else came back. Roan was very antsy and didn’t relax until Marcus told him why Clarke was going to be late. Echo wasn’t all over Marcus anymore, although he noticed she was still just as hostile toward Roan.

The kids were… a mess. Raven claimed they were all hungover, which was a pretty decent lie, all things considered. Bellamy was more together than he was when Marcus last saw him. Monty was a nervous wreck. And Murphy kept his eyes trained on Emori.

“Uh, last night something happened,” Marcus started, and he could feel the panic level rise in the room. He glanced over at Bellamy, nodding at him softly enough that it wouldn’t be noticeable to the others. “My friend, Thelonious Jaha, and I got into a fight because I discovered that he had motive to kill Wells Jaha. Last night, he ran away after I confronted him about this,” he explained, noticing how Monty’s shoulders relaxed at those words. “I don’t know where he went and I alerted the authorities that he ran. In the meantime, we have a new defense strategy for Emori. Today, you’re going to find everything you can to prove that Thelonious Jaha murdered his son, Wells Jaha. Get to work.”

Echo started divvying out tasks, passing out the conversations from Wells’ phone that Marcus luckily saved copies of. Then, his front door swung open. He peered around the corner, seeing a very emotional Clarke Griffin glare at him.

“Clarke, let’s talk in my office,” he said quickly, and Clarke huffed past him quickly, her hands balled up into fists. Roan joined them, which Marcus was not happy about… but it wasn’t like he could get Roan to leave the situation alone at this point.

“How long?” Clarke spat as soon as the door was shut.

“Clarke, please sit,” Marcus gestured calmly.

“How long did you have that evidence?” she yelled, and Roan hushed her, putting a hand on her shoulder that she immediately smacked away.

“About a month,” Marcus whispered regretfully.

“You’ve known that man killed my father for a month and I just now found out about it this morning?” Clarke spat.

“You didn’t know?” Roan asked, furrowing his brows at her, and Marcus cocked his head to the side in confusion.

“You did?” Clarke growled, looking more murderous than she did the first moment she stepped in the house.

“Clarke, I told him not to tell you,” Marcus stepped in.

“You’ve known Thelonious Jaha murdered my father for a month?” Clarke snapped, her jaw clenching and her eyes not leaving Roan’s.

“Roan, I need you to step outside,” Marcus warned, knowing that Clarke wasn’t going to be able to calm down while he was here… reminding her that someone she trusted had been lying to her. “Now,” Marcus shouted, and Roan quickly pushed past Clarke to walk out of the office.

“Start talking,” Clarke growled as soon as the door was shut. 

 

**One Year Earlier**

 

_Wells_

 

Wells offered to sit next to Clarke at the funeral, but she blew him off. He knew why, of course. Clarke had a hard time even looking at Wells without being reminded of what happened to Lexa. He knew it wasn’t their fault… but if they had gone through with it, her family might not have killed her to teach Clarke a lesson.

He was proud of her, though… not caving after that, not running back to them out of fear. She was handling being cut out of the family quite well, all things considered. He wished he had some of her strength. Maybe if he did, she wouldn’t resent him as much. After all, she lost more in this than he did.

“They’re handling it quite well, don’t you think?” his father asked, sliding into the pew next to him.

“Jake died. They’re a disaster,” Wells snapped, as his father leaned back to look at him.

“They’re strong women. They’ll be okay,” he sighed, and Wells’ jaw clenched. “And we’ll be there for them. They were there for us when your mother died.”

“Clarke doesn’t want me to be there for her,” Wells reminded him in a huff.

“She’ll come around. What happened to Lexa was horrible, of course. Although, Clarke had to have been acting out in other ways for it to escalate that quickly,” he mused, and none of this was new information to Wells. Clarke had been rebelling for years, making it hard for her family to keep a leash on her. It just seemed her and Wells’ decision was the final straw. But it backfired. Now, there was nothing left for them to threaten her with, and she would be free of it all.

“Dad,” Wells whispered, looking around to see if anyone was seated near them. “I want out.”

“Don’t say things like that,” his father warned, cocking his head to the side.

“I want out. I mean it,” Wells snapped.

“Stop.”

“Let me out,” Wells demanded, and his father’s jaw clenched as he glanced around angrily, before his eyes fixed back on Wells. “Or I’ll start asking why it just so happens that when Jake died, all the charges against you were dropped,” he threatened, and his father’s eyes darkened back at him.


	12. We Killed a Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took a little longer than I planned to get up, so sorry about that. But, FYI, things have gotten worse for me personally. Not gonna get into too many details, but I spent my entire day at a funeral. So, I may not be cranking out updates all that quickly for the next week or so. Honestly, I'm fine, I've just gotten a lot of family stuff I have to sort out and so I can't promise that I'll be my usual upload-a-chapter-every-day self. Just wanted to give that heads up.
> 
> Anyways, I think I've got a cool chapter for you guys. Some Bellarke feels. Roarke angst, as always lol. Sea Mechanic angst. Everyone being hella paranoid and a shit ton of LIES. Basically, no one is really good at doing the murder and is struggling with it. 
> 
> Let me know what you guys think! I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving (mine got cancelled but I'm not that mad because turkey tastes like sadness and last year my sister threw a fork at me during a "spirited" political "debate".) Love you guys!

_Bellamy_

 

“What about this?” Clarke asked, wearing another flimsy scarf that could easily fall out of place and reveal the marks on her neck. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she let out a huff, turning back into her closet. He lied back on her bed, rubbing his eyes slightly. Once Clarke got that text from her mom, Bellamy had to drive her over to her apartment so she could find something to cover up her neck… well, and so she could get clean clothes that didn’t potentially have crime scene evidence on them.

Bellamy didn’t sleep for even a moment last night. He was too busy debating whether or not he should tell Clarke the truth about last night, both about the trophy and Professor Kane. On one hand, he was terrified that in a moment of weakness, Clarke would tell Monty or Raven about the trophy, which would mean nothing was keeping them from going to the police. And literally the only thing he promised Kane was that he wouldn’t tell the others.

On the other hand, it was Clarke. She was much calmer now that she had gotten some sleep. She was usually great under pressure. And he hated lying to her. He didn’t give a damn about lying to the others, especially when it was for their own good. But Clarke? He wasn’t sure he could keep it up. It was clear that honesty was pretty important to her, and he cared about her. But it was deeper than that. Bellamy wasn’t sure he could keep both those secrets to himself. Sure, Murphy knew about the trophy, but it’s not like Bellamy could ever really talk to Murphy about what they did last night.

Clarke was his partner in this. She stayed with him last night, showed that she trusted him. He needed to trust her.

She came out wearing a dark gray turtleneck, and he narrowed his eyes at her, looking for any evidence of what Jaha did to her last night. “I think that one will work,” he sighed, and Clarke threw her head back in relief.

“Thank God,” she groaned, before pulling some boots out of her closet and plopping down next to him on the bed.

“Clarke, I need to talk to you about something,” he whispered, glancing over at her.

“What’s wrong?” she asked with furrowed brows.

“I lied to you last night,” he admitted, and she cocked her head to the side. “Uh, actually twice. I’ll start with the easier one. I broke the trophy.”

“What?” Clarke snapped, and he grabbed her hand before she could hit his arm.

“Monty was going to run straight to the police once we were done unless there was something that could tie him to it. I broke off a piece so he would think it was on the body and keep his mouth shut,” he explained, and Clarke clenched her jaw. “I know, I should have told you. But I was scared that you would tell them the truth.”

Clarke swallowed, looking down at the ground. She wasn’t frantically screaming at him, which he took as a good sign. “What’s the other lie?” she asked, voice low.

“When I went back for the trophy, there was someone in the house,” he said slowly, and her head whipped up to look at him with wide, panicked eyes. “It was Professor Kane. He knows what happened.”

She sucked in a breath, not interrupting him, and he reached to grab her hands, thankful she didn’t flinch this time.

“He says he’s going to help us. He told me everything we needed to do. That’s why I stayed so calm after,” he explained, and Clarke just shook her head in disbelief. “I don’t know why he’s helping us, but he is. He told me not to tell any of you, but I needed to tell you.”

Clarke stood up from the bed and started pacing back and forth in front of Bellamy, her brows furrowed as she thought through this. Bellamy still couldn’t fathom Professor Kane agreeing to help them, especially when he could get into trouble for it… but for some reason, Bellamy trusted him. He could have just called the police last night.

Then, Clarke put her hands over her head as she started taking deep breaths. “You need to find out why he’s helping us,” she finally said.

“Aren’t you going to yell at me?” he asked, and her eyes flickered to his.

“I mean, I’m upset. The trophy thing caused not one but two of my panic attacks last night. And I’m not exactly happy about Professor Kane…” she sighed, and he narrowed his eyes at her. “But he can’t exactly turn you in. He’s now an accessory in all of this.”

“I think that’s why he didn’t want me to tell anyone about it. If things fell apart, it’d be easier for him to discredit my statement than all five of us,” he explained, and she nodded along. “Seriously, why aren’t you yelling at me?”

“Because if Thelonious had died when I shoved him over the railing, I’d probably be lying to you about something too. I mean, last night was crazy. We killed a man.”

“I killed a man,” he corrected, and Clarke’s jaw clenched.

“We killed a man,” she repeated, narrowing her eyes at him in the stubborn way she always did. “I don’t blame you for lying to me. I don’t like it. But I get it. You can’t trust me with something like this.”

“Yes, I can. That’s why I’m telling you now,” he sighed, and her eyes softened as her lips parted. “You can’t tell the others. Murphy knows about the trophy, but not about Kane.”

“Okay,” she whispered, and Bellamy stood up.

“You sure you don’t want me to come with you?” he asked. He knew she was anxious about going to talk to her mom. She had been fidgeting the whole drive back to her apartment, which she never does.

“Bell, I’ll be fine,” she sighed, and he warmed up a bit at her calling him that with such ease. He stepped toward her, and her palms rested on his chest. Part of him was worried that last night was just a one-time thing, a moment of comfort. To be honest, that’s probably what it was for her. He was just there at the right time, and they were kind of trapped in this nightmare together.

But she was much softer with him now, getting up on her toes to press a kiss to his cheek, before grabbing her coat. He was about to say something about last night, when both of their phones went off.

“Bell,” Clarke said with a panicked voice, and he swallowed, looking over the text from Kane.

“It’s probably just for Emori’s case,” he reassured, but the panicked look didn’t leave Clarke’s eyes. He stepped toward her, holding her face between his hands. “I meant it last night, Clarke. I’m going to take care of you. We’re going to be okay,” he reassured, even though he had no idea if this would all work out.

Her blue eyes still looked panicked, and Bellamy slowly pressed his lips to hers, hoping to at least distract her.

 

_Raven_

 

She could hear Luna pacing on the other side of the bathroom door… which is why Raven took extra time to clean her face. Coming here last night was a monumental mistake. Even if Raven wasn’t hiding something, reconnecting with Luna couldn’t end well. Raven hadn’t been a serious relationship since Finn and didn’t have the first clue how to really love another person in a healthy way. Luna didn’t deserve that, not when Luna actually knew how to be good to another person.

She went over her lies again, going over the details so she wouldn’t slip up to Luna. She was too much of a mess last night for Luna not to have a million questions. When she finally opened the bathroom door, Luna didn’t even pretend that she wasn’t waiting on Raven.

“What happened last night?” Luna asked with so much concern in her eyes, and it broke Raven’s heart.

“I was high,” Raven lied, and Luna’s brows furrowed at that.

“You don’t do drugs, Raven,” she corrected.

“Well, I lied to you when I said that,” Raven lied again, shrugging as she looked down at the ground. “Look, I lied to you about a million things while we were together. You already know that I planned the night we met so I could get information for a case.”

“And I forgave you for that,” Luna jumped in, and Raven’s jaw clenched. Luna shouldn’t forgive her for that. She shouldn’t forgive her for any of it.

“Yeah, but I also did the same thing to other girls, Luna. You shouldn’t forgive me for that,” Raven snapped, and Luna pressed her lips together, nodding. “And then I come to your apartment high out of my mind and now you’re still being supportive and great. You don’t deserve to have to deal with any of this,” Raven muttered, gesturing to herself.

“Raven, I care about you,” she said so earnestly, and Raven felt her chest tighten up.

“Stop,” she pleaded, looking down at her feet. Raven should have just gone home last night and found a way to comfort herself. Her coming here was beyond selfish, and she needed to push Luna away as quickly as possible.

“Please.”

“I’m a drug addict, Luna,” Raven lied, and Luna’s eyes widened. “Last night was kind of a wake-up call for me. But I’m a mess. I’ve got to get myself back together on my own.”

“You came here for a reason. Clearly, you want someone to help you. And I want to be that person. Please, just let me help you,” Luna pleaded, and Raven buried her face in her hands. Luckily, her phone rang just in time, so she didn’t have to come up with yet another lie for Luna.

“I have to go,” Raven murmured, before tugging on her jacket.

“You can’t just go to work after telling me you’re a drug addict,” Luna snapped, gripping onto Raven’s wrist.

“I really have to go. Kane will kill me,” Raven blew it off.

“You have to come back here when you’re done, then,” Luna ordered, and Raven cocked her head to the side in confusion. She was already terrified about whatever it was that Kane wanted from them, especially after what happened in his house last night. But she couldn’t make sense of Luna right now either.

“Luna, why would you want me to come back? I’m just going to screw up your life again,” Raven snapped, and Luna’s eyes narrowed defiantly.

“No, you’re not,” she said harshly. “Now, go to work, and then come right back here so we can talk about this.”

When Raven pulled up to Kane’s house, she had to take a few deep breaths before stepping out of her car.

“He knows, doesn’t he?” Monty asked, causing Raven to jump. She glanced over, seeing him step out of his car at the same time as her.

“We don’t know that,” Raven replied, shaking her head rapidly. “This is probably just about Emori’s case.”

She studied Monty more closely as they approached the house. He was much calmer than he was last night, although his eyes looked tired. He probably slept about as well as Raven did. When they walked in, Raven found herself scanning the floor, looking for a broken piece of the trophy.

“About damn time you guys got here,” Murphy muttered, and Raven narrowed her eyes at him. Emori was fast asleep in the corner of the room. Kane’s office door was shut. Then, she located the trophy on the shelf it sat in when no one currently had it… she wondered how Clarke got it back here.

She plopped down in a chair, pulling out her phone to see three different texts from Luna already. She swallowed, feeling guilty about the newest set of lies she’s unleashed onto the poor girl.

Then, Bellamy came into the house… without Clarke. Raven glanced over at Monty who seemed to notice that too.

“Where’s your girlfriend, Blake?” Murphy mumbled, not even looking up from his notebook.

“She’s not my girlfriend. And she had something to talk to her mom about first. She’ll be late,” he sighed, sitting down next to Murphy.

“Oh good, you’re all here,” Echo groaned as she stepped out of Kane’s office, and Kane followed after her. Roan popped into the living room too, looking a bit rough himself. “Raven, you look like shit.”

“Just hungover,” Raven lied a little too easily.

“Wait, where’s Griffin?” Echo asked, glancing back at Roan.

“She had to meet with her mother this morning,” Kane said, before brushing past her into the living room.

“Wait, what?” Roan snapped, but Kane waved him off.

“Uh, last night something happened,” Professor Kane said to all of them, and Raven exchanged a panicked look with Monty. He _knew_. “My friend, Thelonious Jaha, and I got into a fight because I discovered that he had motive to kill Wells Jaha. Last night, he ran away after I confronted him about this.” Raven let out a breath, realizing that she was just being paranoid. Of course, Kane didn’t know. How would he? He would have come home to an empty house. There was no reason he would jump straight to murder. “I don’t know where he went and I alerted the authorities that he ran. In the meantime, we have a new defense strategy for Emori. Today, you’re going to find everything you can to prove that Thelonious Jaha murdered his son, Wells Jaha. Get to work.”

Raven clenched her eyes shut, trying to process everything he just threw at them. Maybe if she had gotten more sleep, this would make sense to her… but just days ago, Kane was letting Jaha stay in his house because they were such close friends. Now, he was going to try and convict him as a murderer?

Echo tossed a packet into Raven’s hands, and she started flipping through the pages. There were text conversations between Wells and Thelonious, fighting over what happened to some guy named Jake. She shook her head, unable to make sense of any of this.

Then, she heard the front door swing open and her head popped up to see a murderous Clarke Griffin glaring directly at Kane.

“Clarke, let’s talk in my office,” Kane said quickly as Clarke stormed past him. Roan and Kane followed after her in a huff, and Raven glanced up at Echo in confusion.

Once the door was shut, Echo explained, “The ‘Jake’ they’re texting about is Jake Griffin.”

“Jaha murdered Clarke’s dad?” Monty asked before Murphy shushed him.

“Allegedly, yes,” Echo replied, before turning around to go back toward the kitchen. “So you already have motive. Get to work tearing apart his alibi,” she huffed, and Raven’s eyes widened at Monty.

“Did you know about this since you have the phone?” Monty whispered to Murphy, who immediately leaned forward to hit his arm.

“Shut up,” Murphy threatened, flickering his eyes back to Kane’s office.

“We can’t talk about that here,” Raven reminded, and Roan stepped out of Kane’s office looking almost… terrified. She waited for him to go into the kitchen or join them in the living room… but he just stayed there, pacing feet away from the door.

Raven looked at the others, seeing Murphy and Monty tearing through the packets… but Bellamy’s eyes were fixed on Roan with a concerned look in his eyes. She did her best not to think too much about it, as she started reading over Jaha’s alibi for the night Wells died.

Minutes passed, and Clarke came storming out of Kane’s office. Raven swallowed, sneaking a small peak up at her from behind the paperwork.

“Can I talk to you for a moment?” Roan asked calmly, and Clarke’s jaw twitched.

“Depends. What are you going to lie about this time?” Clarke muttered, brushing past him toward the stairs. Roan let out a huff before following after her.

“Don’t,” she heard Murphy whisper, and she glanced over at him, seeing his hand holding onto Bellamy’s arm as Bellamy settled back into the couch.

“What is going on?” Raven whispered with furrowed brows.

“They all knew that Jaha killed her dad and lied to her about it. Princess is pissed,” Murphy whispered, and Raven threw her head back, processing all of that.

 

_Roan_

 

“Let me explain,” Roan said calmly as he shut the door behind him.

“You knew,” Clarke spat, not even looking at him now. He took a deep breath before walking toward her. “I told you how much it bothered me that we never figured out who killed him… and you found out and didn’t tell me.”

“I couldn’t tell you. Not until we confirmed it,” Roan explained, and Clarke scoffed. “Clarke, I’m serious. I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t.”

“You lied to me, again,” she growled, her eyes more vicious than he had ever seen before. “I can’t believe that I wanted to forgive you for all the other shit, when this whole time you have been keeping this from me!”

“Clarke,” he snapped.

“He is my dad!” she shouted, before smacking him in the chest. He gripped her wrist to keep her from hitting him again, shooting her a warning look. “I would never lie to you about something this big.”

Roan clenched his jaw, narrowing his eyes at her. He couldn’t believe she just said that after what she did last night. “Never?”

“Never,” she lied, and Roan gripped her wrist a little tighter as he stepped toward her, towering over her.

“So you’re gonna tell me that you didn’t come to this house and murder Thelonious last night?” he asked, and as hard as Clarke was trying, a small moment of realization crossed her eyes. “You didn’t use the others as your alibi for the night? You didn’t take that trophy and kill Jaha with it?” he growled, and Clarke jerked her wrist from his clasp with a defiant look on her face. “You didn’t trick me into bringing the murder weapon back to the scene of the crime for you?”

“Roan,” Clarke warned.

“You don’t get to judge me for lying after that,” he growled. Sure, he had lied to Clarke about a lot of things… but nothing like that. He wouldn’t trick her into being an accomplice to one of his crimes. He cared about her too much for that. “The only thing I don’t know is why you did it.” He was convinced she knew about Jaha killing Jake… but after seeing her explosion this morning, it was clear she just found out hours ago.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Clarke lied, and Roan let out a groan.

“I know you did it, Clarke,” he snapped, and Clarke’s jaw clenched. “Just admit it. Or was it someone else and you just helped? Murphy maybe? Or Raven? Did Bellamy kill him?”

“I did,” Clarke said quickly, and Roan clenched his eyes shut. He didn’t want to believe that. He didn’t want it to be true. Clarke had never killed someone before. It was a fact that always shocked him, especially when her cousins bragged about their first kills to anyone who would listen. “It was the only choice,” she whispered, and he forced his eyes open, seeing her pull down her turtleneck, revealing dark red marks on her neck. He glanced away quickly, realizing exactly where he had seen similar marks before. “The trophy was the only thing I could get his hands on while he…” Clarke trailed off, and Roan nodded, realizing what happened. It was self-defense.

“What did you do with the body?” he had to ask, already making a list of things he needed to do to cover this up.

“It’s dealt with. Trust me. I know how to get away with this kind of thing,” Clarke said sadly, and Roan nodded, knowing all too well what that felt like. “Are you going to turn me in?”

“Of course not,” Roan sighed, shaking his head slightly. He had gotten too many actual murderers off who didn’t come close to having the reasoning that Clarke did for killing someone. And he knew that Clarke wouldn’t be given the benefit of the doubt in this case. “Look, Echo is really suspicious about what happened to Jaha, so steer clear of her. She’s like a human lie detector,” he warned, and Clarke nodded along, adjusting her turtleneck. He wanted to ask Clarke more questions, but he also knew that the less he knew the better. He was still convinced that the others, or at least Bellamy, was in on this. He could see Clarke tricking Bellamy into helping her. After all, she tricked Roan into bringing back the murder weapon. As clever as she was, she knew she’d need help to move a body.

She moved toward the door, but Roan stopped her. “Are we okay?” he had to ask, and Clarke threw her head back, clenching her eyes shut.

“Roan, what I did to you doesn’t compare to what you did to me,” Clarke snapped, and Roan opened his mouth to argue before Clarke shot him a dirty look. “No, you didn’t tell me you were married. You promised me a future that I cannot have with you.”

“I’m divorcing Ontari,” he corrected.

“No, you’re not. I know how these marriages work. You will lose everything if you do that. And if Ontari even thinks for a second that you’re doing it just for me, she will _kill_ me,” Clarke growled, pushing Roan back. “And deep down, you knew that.”

Roan swallowed, closing his eyes for a brief moment. On some level, Clarke was right. Ontari would try to take it out on Clarke. Her threats had been very clear. But Roan had been working on a plan to get around that.

“You also told Echo all about Lexa, which she put down in that secret file you guys have on me. Guess what? Murphy knows about it, which means he knows all about Lexa,” Clarke snapped, and his eyes jerked back open. “That’s also your fault.”

“We’ve been over that. I told her that so she could prep you,” he snapped.

“Great. That doesn’t change the fact that a guy I don’t trust now knows that my family killed my girlfriend and that they tried to frame me for it,” she growled, and Roan flinched at those words. “And then there’s the issue of you lying to me about my dad. I don’t give a shit what Kane asks of you. He doesn’t own you. You made the decision to lie to me.”

“What would you have done if I had told you? Look at how you’ve blown up over it. You would have told your family, and they would have murdered him, Clarke,” Roan spat.

“Well then, maybe I wouldn’t have been this close to having him kill me last night,” Clarke growled, and Roan flinched again at those words.

They stood there in silence, both glaring at each other angrily. There was no way for either of them to win at this point. She was too emotional and he was too defensive. Things needed to calm down before any of this could be resolved.

“Let’s go downstairs,” Roan finally said.

“You go downstairs. I need a moment,” Clarke said, jaw still clenched. Roan walked around her, flexing his hand as he walked, trying to get the tension out somehow.

“Thank you, for not letting him kill you,” he finally said, before closing the door behind him.

When he got to the bottom of the stairs, Echo was waiting for him with a curious look on her face.

“Not now,” he warned, brushing past her. He noticed that Bellamy was working extra hard to look like he was working, and Roan rolled his eyes before walking into the kitchen. So, at the bare minimum, Clarke got Bellamy to help her.

“You did it for Clarke, didn’t you?” Echo whispered, apparently following him into the kitchen.

“Did what for Clarke?” he huffed, turning around to glare at her.

“Killed Thelonious,” she accused.

“You heard Kane. He ran off because we’re turning this case around on him,” Roan snapped, and Echo narrowed her eyes at him.

“You’re lying to me about something,” she said, before walking back into the living room.

 

_Murphy_

 

They had all been researching for hours when Bellamy decided to go pick up lunch for them. Murphy had noticed everyone else be particularly jumpy, especially Monty and Raven. He was curious to see if they would act less or more paranoid once everyone’s favorite murderer had left the room. Plus, Bellamy had been tense since he hadn’t gotten a lot of time with Clarke, since Clarke had been in and out of Kane’s office all morning.

Clarke stepped out of the office again, plopping down where Bellamy had been sitting, right next to Murphy.

“Raven, can you come in here?” Echo shouted from the kitchen, and Clarke slid Murphy a note.

_Jaha’s alibi was bought._

He glanced up at her, furrowing his brows in confusion, but Clarke pretended nothing happened as she glanced at her laptop screen. Monty got up to ask Kane a question, and Murphy slid closer to Clarke.

“How do you know that?” he whispered.

“You know how I know that,” Clarke said quickly, narrowing her eyes at him. Murphy swallowed, remembering how he had been wondering how Clarke hadn’t been brought in for Lexa’s murder even though she looked like the perfect suspect.

“Why haven’t you told Kane this yet? It would solve everything.”

“Because I don’t need anyone asking me why I know that. You need to prove it to him,” Clarke said, and Murphy let out a groan, before pulling his laptop onto his lap.

“Of course, the damn princess expects me to do her work,” he grumbled, and Clarke pulled her laptop onto her lap.

“Roan got a perfect score on Kane’s Criminology 101 final. I stole his outline. Do this for me, and it’s yours,” she offered, and Murphy gave in… even though he was already going to do it anyway.

Once Monty and Raven came back into the room, Murphy pitched “his” theory to them, figuring the more of them working on it, the better.

Between the four of them, they located the guy who corroborated Jaha’s alibi and found out that he had skipped town just one day after, and he took this to Kane, who looked back at him with furrowed brows.

“You’re sure about this theory?” he asked, and Murphy nodded.

“It’s fishy as hell that this guy is Jaha’s alibi for the night, when the two of them have next to no history together. Doesn’t help that Raven found out that he paid off his car debt that week too. Looks like he got a large influx of cash,” Murphy explained, and Kane stood up, brushing past him into the hallway.

“Roan!” he shouted, and Murphy ducked back into the living room, noticing Monty whispering something to Raven suspiciously. He glanced over at Clarke, who was too distracted by Bellamy to notice what was clearly going on here. Monty and Raven were about to turn on them. “I need you to go somewhere for me,” Kane explained, walking up to Roan and leading him toward the front door.

“You two seem chummy all of the sudden,” Murphy accused, looking directly at Monty, who immediately jumped back.

“Monty was just telling me that Kane isn’t counting the trophy being here as him turning it in, since Monty didn’t wait to physically give it to Kane himself. Meaning he has to take the exam with us,” Raven replied a little too defensively. Murphy looked past her at Emori who was sitting in the back and just shaking her head at him. He smirked at her, and Raven immediately looked behind her with a panicked look in her eyes. She forgot Emori was there… it was a mistake that too many people in this house kept making.

 

_Echo_

 

Echo was lucky that she just happened to pass the window as Ontari showed up at the house. She grabbed her coat quickly before stepping out of the house before anyone saw her.

“What are you doing here?” Echo whispered, shutting the door behind her quietly. “Roan isn’t here.”

“I know. I came to talk to you,” Ontari said with a grin, cocking her head slightly.

“I can’t help you with him. He hates you. Can’t fix you being a bitch,” Echo retorted, and Ontari rolled her eyes, before sitting down on the steps, patting for Echo to join her. Hesitantly, Echo stepped down, not taking her eyes off Ontari for a second.

“I know what Roan did last night,” Ontari finally said, and Echo furrowed her brows in confusion.

“He literally did nothing but mope in his apartment last night,” Echo snapped, and Ontari huffed.

“The entire city is whispering about Thelonious Jaha going ‘missing.’ I know what that means,” she replied, and Echo swallowed.

“He is missing,” she corrected.

“No, his dead body is missing. And Roan killed him,” Ontari accused, and Echo was careful not to let her face betray anything. After all, this was the very conclusion that Echo had reached. Roan was a mess last night, flustered by Echo’s ridiculous plan and Marcus threatening to ruin everything for them… his life could have gone to hell if either of them were successful in their original plans. Throw in that Jaha murdered Clarke’s dad and that Roan was hovering around Clarke nervously all day… and Echo was pretty convinced that he was the one to finish Jaha off once and for all.

“Roan was with me all night. I was drunk and upset, and he babysat me at his apartment,” Echo lied. “Besides, there is no body to be found. The guy got spooked and ran. End of story.”

“You know, I stopped by the house last night,” Ontari said casually, and Echo’s stomach dropped. She must have _seen_ something. Echo needed to figure out exactly what Roan did last night so she could help him cover it all up. He should know better than to leave witnesses at this point, but maybe all this time away from that life had made him forgetful and careless.

“You’ve got to stop doing that. No one wants you here,” Echo growled, standing back up and climbing up the stairs.

“Let Roan know what I said,” she shouted, and Echo whipped her head around to glare at her. “And maybe remind him that as his wife, I can’t be forced to testify against him… Tell him to think about that very carefully.”

Echo stormed into the house, slamming the door behind her angrily. Marcus popped out of his office to give her a concerned look, but she waved him off. It’s not like she can tell Marcus that Roan killed Jaha last night.

She ran up to her office before he could ask any questions. It wasn’t that Echo couldn’t just lie to him. She was great at lying. She just didn’t want to until she got all the facts first. She needed to know exactly what she was lying for.

 

_Monty_

 

They waited outside for Murphy to come out. Clarke and Bellamy took off first as soon as they all got the news about Wallace dropping the charges against Emori, which he had to roll his eyes at.

“We could just go. Just the two of us,” Raven suggested, but Monty shook his head. As of right now, they were outnumbered. If the two of them went in to tell the truth, the other three could outnumber them in their counter-testimonies. They needed Murphy.

“What are you two doing here still?” Murphy asked, and Emori got into his car as Murphy stalked toward them.

“We need to talk,” Raven said.

“Figured as much. You two have been freaking out all day,” Murphy replied, narrowing his eyes at Monty.

“Look, Clarke was the one to push him off the stairs, and Bellamy actually killed him. The rest of us were innocent in this,” Monty explained, and Murphy started groaning.

“Okay, you’re forgetting the part where I literally handed Bellamy the murder weapon. Also, I’m part of the reason all of us ended up in the house at the first place,” he snapped.

“But you didn’t try to kill anyone, and neither did we,” Raven explained. “Clarke and Bellamy should end up fine. He only killed Jaha to save Clarke. He’ll serve a short sentence and be okay. But we can’t let ourselves get dragged into this when it all goes south.”

“We all agreed!” Murphy snapped, and Monty realized that Murphy might not budge in their favor… in fact, he might just go straight to Clarke and Bellamy and tell them what they were planning on doing. He needed to do something, quick.

“There’s no way Emori will make it out of this unscathed with her record. If we get ahead of this, we can make sure she stays out of this,” Monty pleaded, and Murphy looked back at his car with a concerned look on his face.

“Hold on,” Murphy said, before walking over to his car. Monty exchanged a concerned look with Raven, waiting to see what he was doing. Then, they saw him toss the keys to Emori before heading over to them with his lips pressed together. “Okay, but we need to do this right. Let’s go to someone’s apartment and get our story straight. And then, we go straight to the DA to look for an immunity deal.”

Monty started nodding along, gesturing for him to follow Monty to his car. He glanced over at Raven, who still looked anxious about this whole thing… but it was the right thing to do. Monty couldn’t live with this secret for a moment longer. They needed to tell the truth.

 

_Clarke_

 

Bellamy was sitting on her couch, reading over outlines without a care in the world… and Clarke couldn’t understand that. All things considered, Bellamy’s lies were pretty forgivable in comparison to some of the others she had come into contact with today. She wasn’t really angry with him. A bit annoyed, sure. But angry… no.

He told her the truth because he trusted her with it, which was clearly something that was hard for him to do. And Clarke needed to trust him too. He literally saved her life last night, and is still taking care of her now. She wondered if his feelings for her were the main reason for it, and tried to make sense of what that would mean if it were true. What happened between them last night was emotional… and it was incredible. It had been a long time since Clarke felt that close to another person, and she wasn’t even scared of it. She felt comfortable with him… and that’s what startled her.

So, she walked back into her living room, dropping Echo’s file on her in front of Bellamy.

“What is this?” Bellamy asked, glancing up at Clarke with an amused look on his face.

“When Kane hired us all, Echo made a file about each of us that has all the dirt she could find. This is mine,” Clarke said, and Bellamy’s brows furrowed. “I want you to read it.”

He glanced down at the file, but didn’t reach out to touch it. He just looked confused. “Why do you want me to read this?”

“I feel like you should know what kind of person I am,” Clarke whispered, and his eyes flickered back up to hers in confusion. Clarke didn’t want to have to say any more. She didn’t want to have to point out that Bellamy killed a man for her and that he deserved to at least know what kind of person he was protecting. He just… needed to know. He needed to be warned about her.

“I don’t need to read that to know you, Clarke,” he argued, standing up to walk over to her.

“Read it, Bellamy,” she snapped, looking down at her feet.

“Did you read my file when you broke into Echo’s office?” he asked, and Clarke shook her head. She couldn’t bring herself to do that. It wasn’t her business. She didn’t want to read about his past conquests or whatever it was that he did that made Murphy so naturally suspicious of him. “Then, I’m not reading yours,” he huffed, before sitting back down on the couch. Clarke swallowed, realizing that she was going to actually have to tell him what’s in it.

“I was supposed to marry Wells,” Clarke said, and Bellamy’s head snapped up in her direction with a deer in the headlights look in his eyes. “Uh, it’s just a thing that families like mine kind of do. My mom and dad did it.”

“Got married?”

“Okay, it’s more complicated than that,” Clarke realized, sitting down next to him as she got her thoughts together. She didn’t start at the easiest part. “Okay, let me start at the beginning.”

“Clarke, what are you doing?” Bellamy asked, grabbing her face between his hands.

“Telling you what’s in my file,” she explained, and Bellamy threw himself back on the couch, groaning as his head hit the back of it.

“I don’t want you to just tell me what’s on your file, Clarke. I don’t care.”

“You should,” Clarke snapped, and his head jerked up. “You don’t understand. There’s a reason I’m not off having a nervous breakdown after last night.”

“What?” Bellamy asked, furrowing his brows as he slid closer to her.

“Just read my file,” Clarke pleaded, clenching her eyes shut.

“No,” Bellamy snapped.

“My family is horrible, Bellamy,” she whispered, shaking her head. She couldn’t even look at him now, so she turned slightly. “They do stuff like what we did last night all the time. They rig elections, they traffic drugs, they own dozens of politicians, police officers, federal agents... they’re monsters, Bellamy.”

They sat there in silence for a few moments, and Clarke saw Bellamy’s hand reach toward her file. She let out a breath, realizing she wasn’t going to have to say anything else… but then he just handed it to her.

“Why are you actually telling me this?” he asked, looking at her with concerned eyes.

“Because I think you might care about me and you should know what kind of hell you’re getting yourself into,” Clarke warned, and Bellamy bit his lip.

“I don’t care about your family. You’re not like them and you got away from them,” he said, raising his eyebrows, and Clarke’s stomach dropped at those words. Sure, she got away from them… but she didn’t know if it would even last.

“Will you just let me tell you how I got away from them?” she asked, confident that this story would be enough to send him running. He let out a sigh, before nodding. “All my life, I knew that my grandfather was going to make me marry Wells or Cage, so he could get either Thelonious or Dante into his pocket. Either would be quite a great step toward whatever the hell it is my grandfather wants to do. I leaned towards Wells because at least I knew him and we were friends. I told myself that I could be okay with it.”

“But you weren’t okay with it,” Bellamy said, and Clarke nodded.

“I fell in love with someone else. Her name was Lexa,” Clarke said, looking down at her hands. “Wells and I made a plan to call off the engagement, a plan that resulted in both of us getting cut off.”

“Please tell me that’s the worst thing that came of it,” Bellamy said, and Clarke’s lips twitched.

“Lexa was murdered in an attempt to scare me into coming back,” she explained, and she couldn’t even bring herself to look back up at Bellamy. “That plan backfired on them, since it was the only thing that could push me hard enough to get away from them for good.”

She wasn’t sure what she was expecting from Bellamy. Maybe she thought he would just get up and leave, realizing that the people in Clarke’s life just seemed to keep getting killed. But she didn’t expect to feel his arm snake around her back or for him to press a kiss to her shoulder.

“Can I tell you what’s probably on my file?” Bellamy whispered, and Clarke finally glanced up to look at him. His eyes were boring into hers, and his face was just inches away from hers. She nodded slowly, and his eyes glanced down for a moment, before flickering back to meet hers. “Last night wasn’t the first time I killed someone.” Clarke swallowed, knowing there had to be an explanation. Bellamy was a good person. He wouldn’t just kill someone for no reason. “Uh, my mom had this boyfriend. For a while, he was good to us. He was the reason we got out of this really bad neighborhood, but he also had a really bad temper.”

Clarke slid closer to him, realizing where this story was going already. She rested her hand on his knee, not sure how else to comfort him until he was done speaking.

“I was just fourteen when I started noticing the bruises on my mom. She kept telling me it was fine, but it wasn’t. Then, I started finding similar bruises on my little sister,” he said, his voice breaking slightly. Clarke held her breath, and Bellamy looked down. “One day, I came home from school and walked in on him with his hands around my mom’s throat,” he whispered, and Clarke’s hand involuntarily went up to her own neck, resting right where Jaha’s hands had been. “I didn’t think or anything. I just grabbed a knife and stabbed him.”

His eyes didn’t look up at her, but she could see what he was thinking… and she now realized why Bellamy reacted as quickly as he did when he killed Jaha. “Bellamy,” Clarke whispered, tilting his head up so he would look at her. When his sad eyes met hers, her chest ached. She didn’t know what to say to him, what would comfort him… if there was anything that even could be said at this point. So she leaned forward, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips. His lips parted slowly, as his hand found its way into her hair.

When their lips separated, she rested her head against his forehead, keeping her eyes closed.

“I’ve never told anyone that story,” Bellamy whispered, and Clarke nodded. She had only ever told her story to one person before. She knew how hard that had to be for Bellamy.

She was about to open her mouth to speak, when Bellamy’s phone started ringing. He let out a groan, before putting Murphy on speaker.

“We have a huge problem,” Murphy whispered. “Raven and Monty are ready to go confess everything to the DA.”

Clarke immediately pulled her phone out, pulling up Dante Wallace’s number up on her phone.

“Stop them,” Bellamy snapped.

“Stall them,” Clarke corrected, and Bellamy’s eyes widened, as Clarke stepped toward her kitchen, already dialing Wallace.

“Okay, stall them. I’ll call you right back,” Bellamy huffed, before hanging up.

“Clarke! What do I owe the pleasure?” Dante answered the phone, and Clarke put a finger up to signal Bellamy to not say a word.

“Hey, I hope this isn’t a bad time,” Clarke said in the sweetest voice she could muster, hating how fake she just sounded in front of Bellamy. “You know how things are with my family right now, and I need some help. Can you meet me?”

“Uh, I can move some things around. Is everything okay? Are you in trouble?” Dante asked frantically, and Clarke shot Bellamy a reassuring look.

“Yeah, I am. And I didn’t know who else to turn to. I’ll text you the address,” Clarke said.

“Okay, I’ll cancel my evening and be right over,” he reassured, before hanging up.

“What was that?” Bellamy asked with a terrified look on his face.

“I just bought you a night. You need to get Kane to talk them down. They’ll listen to them,” Clarke said, running her fingers through her hair. She needed to figure out what to lie to Dante about when he got there. Oh, she could just tell him about her affair with Roan and how Ontari had started threatening her… perfect. It’s enough dirt that he’ll stay a while but not so much that her family would be brought in on it.

“You have the DA’s number in your phone?” he asked, and Clarke bit her lip, nodding.

“Go get Kane,” Clarke said, and Bellamy ran to grab his coat and keys. He hesitated for a moment, looking at Clarke. Then, he stepped toward her, crashing his lips quickly into hers before pulling away. “Go,” Clarke ordered, gesturing toward the door.

“Bossy princess,” he teased, before closing the door behind him.

 

_Marcus_

 

For a split second, Marcus thought there was another dead body to be dealt with based on how quickly Bellamy stormed into his office.

“You need to talk down Monty and Raven,” Bellamy said, bracing his hands on both sides of Marcus’ desk. He jumped up, closing the door… not sure if Echo or Roan were in the house.

“Keep your voice down,” Marcus warned.

“They tried to go confess to the DA tonight,” Bellamy explained, and Marcus’ stomach dropped. He immediately went to grab his phone, trying to figure out how he could get Wallace out of his office to keep that from happening. “Clarke already took care of that. She’s distracting him, buying us a few hours to get Monty and Raven to see reason.”

“Point out to them that they’ll go to jail if they are this stupid,” Marcus huffed.

“I’ve done that. Murphy’s done that. Clarke has too. They’re scared and they won’t listen to us. They’ll listen to you,” Bellamy said sternly, and Marcus was already picking his coat off his chair in a huff. He really didn’t want to reveal that he knew to the kids… but he would have to if they were already cracking under the pressure.

“You’re driving. I’ve been drinking,” Marcus growled, rushing toward the door.

Once they got to Monty’s apartment, it finally hit Marcus what he was about to do… he was about to ditch whatever protection he had. If things went south, each one of them would sell him out. His fate would rely entirely on their ability to keep their mouth shut and Bellamy’s ability to get rid of evidence.

The apartment went silent as Bellamy and Marcus barged in.

“Professor Kane, what are you doing here?” Monty asked with a nervous expression on his face. “Murphy,” Monty said, glaring at Murphy who was now looking at the ground.

“What you two are planning on doing is very, very stupid,” Marcus sighed, and panic washed over all of them.

“You _know_ ,” Raven said in disbelief, shaking her head as her eyes filled with tears.

“Did you tell him?” Murphy asked, narrowing his eyes at Bellamy.

“It doesn’t matter how I know,” Marcus jumped in before this started feeling even more like Lord of the Flies. “I just know. And I know you’re all scared.”

Raven gripped Monty’s hand, staring at Marcus like he was a ghost.

“What happened last night… it had to be done,” Marcus said, making sure to look at each of them after saying that, especially Bellamy, whose guilt was still eating at him. “We just proved that Jaha killed Wells, or at least proved enough suspicion to get the charges against Emori dropped. Jaha also killed Jake Griffin, who was a good man. He tried to kill Clarke. He was a horrible man,” Marcus growled. “Now, I need all of you to trust me. I will take care of you. I will protect you. You just have to stay calm. Can you do that?”

“Why haven’t you turned us in?” Monty asked, jaw slightly dropped.

“Because I let that monster into all of your lives. And now I have to take care of you, all of you,” he said sternly. “If you let me, I’ll help you get away with this.”

 

Days later, he walked into the lecture hall, surprised to see all five of them sitting beside each other. Raven and Monty still looked nervous, but less like they were about to scream to the world that they were murderers. Murphy looked suspicious of Marcus, which he should expect. Murphy shouldn’t trust him, not with everything that Marcus has done in his life. Bellamy was right next to Clarke, holding her hand tightly.

Marcus swallowed, as he sat down on top of the table in the front of the room. He took in a deep breath, relaxing as he realized that they all lived to fight another day. He just needed to have faith that Bellamy did everything he asked and that they got away from this unseen by anyone.

“Today’s exam will be an analytical essay,” Marcus announced, and the room went silent. “I will tell you the facts of the hypothetical case, and you will come up with all the possible defenses for each individual involved.”

He hopped off the table before moving toward the board. “Persons A through E went into a convenience store late at night. Person A decides to rob the cashier,” Marcus explains as he writes that next to Person A’s description. “The cashier fights back, and Persons B through E help Person A defend themselves. Each one of them is involved in the physical struggle. Then, Person B shoots and kills the cashier,” he continued, writing that down before he turned around. His five interns were looking at him with terrified expressions.

“Person B acted alone in killing the cashier. But everyone else participated in moving the body and disposing of it. The goal of this essay is to get every single one of them acquitted of all charges. Sounds impossible, right?” he joked, earning a few pity laughs from the back. He watched as his five interns exchanged nervous looks amongst each other. “Let me assure you, there is a way. There is always a way,” he said, deadpanning directly to the five kids. “I hope that one of my one hundred students can figure it out. You all have ninety minutes.”

 

**The Previous Summer**

 

_Wells_

 

“Okay, what did she say to you?” Emori asked, and Wells pressed his lips together. She had probably overheard some of Wells’ conversation earlier when Clarke had called.

“Just a lot of the same,” Wells sighed, not wanting to point out how Clarke went off about how much time he had been spending with Emori. But Clarke didn’t understand. It wasn’t like Wells was just high all the time. Emori had become his only friend. All his childhood friends didn’t understand why Wells had run away from that life, and Clarke was still blaming both of them for what happened to Lexa. Emori was all he had, and she didn’t judge him… well, not much at least.

“Is she doing better?” Emori asked, although Wells knew she didn’t actually care about Clarke. She cared about Wells and Wells cared about Clarke, which meant she had to at least pretend to care about Clarke, which he appreciated.

“Her dad is dead and she still doesn’t know how that happened,” Wells murmured, feeling the guilt build up in his chest again. He knew that if he told Clarke the truth, it would only be a matter of time before that entire family put a kill order on his dad’s head. When Clarke’s uncle got murdered, it took less than two days for the murderer’s body to be dropped on her grandfather’s doorstep.

“I’m no expert on whatever kind of mafia shit you come from,” Emori joked, and Wells snorted, “but there has to be someone outside of it all that you could tell. Like someone who could actually do something about it?”

Wells looked down at his feet, thinking this over. He could potentially reach out to someone outside of both families. Someone who was relatively neutral between the Jaha’s and the Griffin’s. “There might be someone,” he conceded, realizing that Dante Wallace wasn’t in anyone’s pocket just yet. He had no real loyalties, but was powerful enough to make things happen. Plus, Wells grew up with Cage Wallace. He knew that family well enough… Dante might be able to help him.

“You thought of someone, didn’t you?” she asked with a smirk.

“Yeah, maybe,” Wells realized, nodding to himself. He could find a way to make all this right again.


	13. When In Doubt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long chapter, dudes. Angst heavy, some smut. Also, some time has passed since the last chapter. It's been a little over a month since the murder. Buckle in, because the two chapters after this one are gonna be hella intense, just warning you. 
> 
> Anyways, thanks for all the comments and feedback, guys. You're all great!

_Raven_

 

“I haven’t been knocked on my ass that hard since I told that girl in middle school that her highlights looked chunky,” Emori muttered, rubbing her shoulders with a wince. Raven let out an unexpected chuckle… which was all too rare these days.

“I told you I was sorry,” Clarke said defensively, and Raven snorted. This had become their Wednesday night tradition. The three of them went to their self-defense class, and got coffee after. Originally, they were going to just get drinks together, but Luna freaked out when Raven came home smelling like alcohol after the first night.

“How much longer do we have?” Emori asked, glancing down at her phone.

“Luna will expect me back in like half an hour,” Raven groaned, realizing that she had to start preparing answers to Luna’s questions about the fake drug addiction group she had been telling her she was meeting with on Wednesday. She had talked about this a lot with Emori and Clarke on their Wednesday night sessions, about the guilt she feels about lying to Luna but how she couldn’t think of another explanation for how frantic she acted when she showed up on Luna’s doorstep.

It was… nice… to get to talk to Emori and Clarke about it, even though they didn’t really understand what she was going through. They both had significant others who were there that night, so there wasn’t much to hide. The only person who could actually know what Raven was going through was Monty, but he made it clear he wanted nothing to do with the rest of them since they came back from break.

“There has to be something else you can say to her to get you out of this lie,” Clarke suggested, and Raven raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t know. She literally told Luna that she did something really bad that she can’t tell Luna about. If she alters her story, Luna might get suspicious,” Emori replied, and Raven leaned back in her chair. The real solution that Clarke and Emori have been dancing around for weeks was that Raven needed to cut Luna out. None of this was fair to Luna. Raven could never be completely honest with her, no matter how badly she wanted to… not now that a murder was in the equation.

“Okay, let’s talk about someone else’s love life. Clarke, how’s your boyfriend?” Raven deflected, not wanting to dwell on the Luna issue anymore than she had to. This was supposed to be the one time a week that Raven could be honest. And all Raven does with Luna is lie.

“Bellamy’s not my boyfriend,” Clarke snapped, and Emori started groaning. “Stop, it’s not like that.”

“Of course not. You two just sleep in the same bed every night and obsessively text each other and spend almost every damn second together,” Emori replied with a smirk, and Raven reached out to give her a high five. Raven knew that neither Murphy nor Bellamy knew what Clarke and Emori were actually doing every Wednesday night, since they both insisted that Raven keep it on the downlow. From what she could gather, it was just because neither of them wanted the guys to worry.

“We are close, yes,” Clarke clarified, looking down at the table. Raven scoffed at that. Bellamy literally killed a man to keep Clarke safe. “Close” was the understatement of the year.

“Are his nightmares still really bad?” Emori asked, and Clarke nodded along grimly. “And yours?” To that, Clarke just looked down, not responding. Raven couldn’t even imagine what kind of nightmares the two of them were having. Raven was just a witness to what happened with Jaha… but Clarke had his hands around her throat and Bellamy killed him… their nightmares had to be something else altogether.

“You still doing that thing where you don’t talk to him about your nightmares?” Raven asked, and Clarke’s head snapped up.

“Mine are manageable. I don’t need to worry him about that stuff,” she blew it off, and Raven and Emori exchanged a skeptical look. “No, really. Mine aren’t that bad. There’s no reason to wake him up in the middle of the night over them.”

Raven rolled her eyes, deciding not to point out that Bellamy’s thrashing in his sleep kept waking her up… since they had this same conversation every single week. She turned to look at Emori, about to ask her about Murphy and how anxious he had been, but then she saw him walking the coffee shop.

“Uh, Emori,” Raven whispered, gesturing behind her at a very confused looking Murphy.

 

_Murphy_

 

He got up as quietly as he could, trying not to wake up Emori… but it didn’t work. She was already awake.

“John, do you have to go in this early?” she murmured, rubbing her eyes. His jaw clenched, looking back at her. He knew he really shouldn’t be mad at her, but he really didn’t like being lied to.

Last night, after he found out about the girls’ weekly get togethers, he and Emori got into a huge fight. She had purposefully been keeping it from him, apparently not wanting to worry him by bringing up how the Jaha incident had been affecting her. For weeks, Clarke, Raven, and Emori had been taking these self-defense classes together in secret, since apparently all of them felt unsafe… and not one of them mentioned it to the others.

He knew that things were bad for Emori… but he couldn’t believe she kept from him how _bad_ it was. Murphy told her about all the dark fears creeping around in his head, he obsessively locked doors now, he flinched when he heard police sirens… and he talked to her about all of it. But instead of talking to him in return, she had been pretending she was fine and instead dumped all of it onto Raven and Clarke, who were likely doing the same thing to Luna, which made sense, and Bellamy, which didn’t make sense.

“Yeah, I want to talk to the others before class starts,” he sighed, and he could see the panic in Emori’s eyes.

“Please don’t tell the guys what we’ve been doing. Clarke hasn’t told Bellamy,” she pleaded, rolling out of bed, and Murphy threw his head back.

“Okay, Bellamy has no idea that his girlfriend is such a nervous wreck. He thinks she’s fine, and that’s a problem,” Murphy corrected, knowing all too well that he was projecting his own situation onto Bellamy and Clarke. But it was exactly the same. “I mean, you told me last night that she is constantly breaking down with you guys, that she’s still flinching every time someone touches her… that’s not normal. If I were her boyfriend, I would want to know these things.”

“Even if the things she told you would make you panic about her even more?” Emori asked, and now Murphy knew that neither of them were actually talking about Bellamy and Clarke.

“Especially then.”

“So, you would want to know if she pretends to be sleeping just so you wouldn’t know that she doesn’t sleep at night anymore?” Emori asked, stepping toward him with a defiant look on his face. “Would it be easier for you to go to class each morning knowing that the second you walk out the door, she breaks down crying because she’s all alone again?”

“Emori, I want you to tell me these things,” Murphy snapped, running his hands through his hair.

“You already have your own trauma to deal with. You don’t need mine too,” she replied in a huff.

“But you have no problem talking about them with Raven and Clarke?” he asked, furrowing his brows at her.

“They don’t care about me the way you do. I don’t have to worry that they’re going to lose sleep worrying about me. And they don’t look at me like you are right now,” Emori said, tears forming in her eyes, and Murphy forced himself to look at the ground. “It’s not that I trust them more than you. It’s that I know they can handle hearing that I’m in pain. You can’t.”

“Yes, I can,” Murphy lied, and Emori buried her face into his t-shirt. His arms wrapped quickly around her, and he rested his head on top of hers. He had to believe that this would get easier with time… that the panic attacks and the constant looking over their shoulders would stop. They just needed to be patient.

 

_Clarke_

 

“This is what normal couples do, princess,” Bellamy teased, and Clarke furrowed her brows at him.

“What? You take me on a date one time and you’re suddenly my boyfriend now?” Clarke asked, and Bellamy raised an eyebrow at her, before sliding closer to her. There was absolutely no one else in this theater yet, and the real commercials hadn’t even started yet.

“I’ve taken you on dates before this,” he argued, and Clarke cocked her head to the side.

“Name one other time you took me on a date,” she teased, knowing full well that they had never been on a date before this. The two of them were big on staying in these days. Sure, they spent every single night together since the murder, with the exception of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, since Bellamy went home to see his sister. But they had never had a discussion about what they were to each other. It was just kind of understood that neither of them wanted to sleep alone.

“I’m assuming the sex party doesn’t count?” Bellamy asked, and Clarke shook her head. “Okay, well in my defense, we’ve been through a lot. We’re a lot more comfortable staying at home.”

Clarke shrugged in response. That was probably true. Neither of them went out anymore. They just ended up at Clarke or Bellamy’s apartment and watched Netflix until it was time to go to sleep. “So wait, then why are we here if you’d be more comfortable at home?” Clarke asked, furrowing her brows at him.

“Because we are all trying to act normal again,” he reminded her, referencing what Kane had told them earlier that week when they were all acting a little bit skittish. “And this is the kind of thing normal couples do, Clarke.” She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to figure out the exact point where they went from just hanging out to being a couple. “Oh, come on, Clarke. I think we passed friends with benefits about one murder ago,” he whispered, and Clarke immediately searched the theater to see if anyone else had come in… luckily, none had.

“We don’t talk about that outside the apartment,” Clarke reminded, before hitting him on the shoulder.

“Don’t change the subject. We’re talking about why you’re terrified of referring to me as your boyfriend,” he teased, and Clarke threw her head back in frustration. Then, she felt his hand rest on her thigh, before he kissed her cheek. “Come on, princess,” he whispered right in her ear, sending chills up her spine.

Clarke closed her eyes, as Bellamy continued to kiss his way down her neck. Logically, she knew that “boyfriend” was just an economical term for what was going on with Bellamy. But she had also not been in a relationship in any official capacity since Lexa… and the idea of her and Bellamy suddenly becoming serious was kind of terrifying.

Not that it wasn’t already serious. They spent their entire winter break together, staying up all night, whispering secrets they never told anyone else. And Bellamy was the only person Clarke felt comfortable enough with to let him touch her. She flinched when her own mother hugged her on Christmas… but with Bellamy, Clarke felt safe. And that was all too rare these days.

“Okay, how about we make a deal?” Bellamy asked, pulling away, and Clarke’s eyes fluttered open, intrigued. “If you can go this entire date without being all over me, I’ll drop it.”

Clarke literally snorted at that. “I’m not the one who can’t keep their hands to themselves,” Clarke clarified, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Oh, I’m not going to be touching you either,” he replied, and Clarke rolled her eyes. Bellamy almost always had a hand on her, whether it was absently playing with her hair or holding her hand… he was always touching her, almost to assure himself that she was still there. “You and I are just going to sit here and watch this whole movie like two totally platonic friends. And we’re going to drive home that way too.”

“You think you’re just so irresistible that I can’t make it a whole night without touching you?” Clarke teased, and Bellamy pressed his lips together, hiding a smirk.

“Prove me wrong, and I’ll never bring up the couple thing again,” he replied with a smug grin. Clarke slid away from him in her seat, shooting him a defiant look.

“Okay, deal,” Clarke replied. “But if you touch me first, then you can’t bring up the couple thing either since you cheated.”

“Deal,” he smirked, now directing his attention to the commercials that were just starting.

“Starting now?”

“Not just yet,” Bellamy said, before turning to look at her. Then, he crashed his lips onto hers without warning, and Clarke moaned into his mouth. Then, he kissed his way across her cheek, resting his lips on her ear. “The sooner you give in, the sooner we can stop pretending to watch this movie, princess,” he whispered. “Hell, you give in right now, and we’ll go home, and I’ll fuck you as gentle or as rough as you want, baby.” Clarke sucked in a breath, as he slid back into his seat with a huge smirk on his face. “Starting now,” he finally whispered, before leaning back in his seat, and Clarke bit her lip as she tried to focus on the screen.

Clarke found herself squirming a bit in her seat for the first few minutes of the movie, a bit flustered by what Bellamy whispered right in her ear. She wasn’t horny before he said that… but now, well fuck. He knew her well enough to know exactly what kind of thing he could whisper to make her unnerved.

At a few points, Clarke caught him wanting to reach out and grab Clarke’s hand, but he always stopped himself, reminding himself of their little bet. But every time he didn’t give in, Clarke got a little bit sad. It wasn’t like she was all over Bellamy all the time, but she had gotten used to him always being close to her. She would normally have her head resting on his shoulder at this point, maybe occasionally getting a kiss at the top of her head in response.

About halfway through the movie, Clarke realized that Bellamy wasn’t going to let his guard down and absently grab her hand. He was taking this very seriously. So, Clarke leaned over and grabbed a handful of popcorn and shoving it in her mouth, making sure to moan just loud enough for him to hear her. His head immediately jerked in her direction with a flustered look on his face. Clarke arched her back slightly, and Bellamy immediately turned his head in the opposite direction with a clenched jaw. He rested his arm on the armrest, propping his head up in his hand so he could block Clarke out of his vision.

She wasn’t even watching the movie at this point. She was too busy trying to make him cave before she did. And she was fairly certain he had no idea what was going on in the movie either. Occasionally, she got him to look at her, but he almost always turned around immediately. He would flex his hand whenever he got the urge to reach over to Clarke, and Clarke always found herself staring a little too intensely at his hand when he did that.

Somehow, they both made it through the movie. And Clarke was so happy that she drove, since it meant that her hands were going to be busy while she drove them home… which meant she had won.

“You can’t just admit that you missed me during that movie,” Bellamy teased, as they got into her car.

“It was easy,” Clarke lied, and Bellamy scoffed.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice you squirming in your seat, Clarke. At one point, you were sitting on your hands,” he replied, and Clarke bit her lip. “Plus, there’s the fact that you kept trying to get me to cave, which means that you don’t trust yourself to keep this up.”

“I’m just competitive. You know that,” Clarke said, as she pulled out of the parking spot.

“Competitive? You? Never,” Bellamy teased.

“Hey, I’m not the one who turned date night into a bet,” Clarke replied, and Bellamy burst out laughing with that warm laugh that she hadn’t heard much since everything that happened at Kane’s house.

“Well, it’s a lot easier than trying to get you to agree to be my girlfriend,” Bellamy said seriously, and Clarke glanced over at him. “What? Am I wrong?”

Clarke shrugged, as she refocused on the road. She didn’t realize just how serious he was about this label until now. Bellamy had one serious girlfriend in his lifetime, Gina, and hasn’t bothered with anything serious since. He wasn’t really the serious relationship type, or so Clarke thought.

Honestly, there wasn’t a good reason why she kept resisting the label. She liked Bellamy, and he liked her. They had been through too much together at this point for her to pretend this was just a passing thing for either of them. Since December, Bellamy had become the person she trusted the most in the world. He knew everything about her, even the stuff about Roan… which, as it turns out, he already knew about. Whatever problems they had with each other kind of disappeared once Bellamy kept Thelonious from strangling her. None of the little fights or secrets really mattered when it all came down to it. What mattered was that Bellamy was doing everything he could to keep Clarke safe, and she was doing the same thing for him.

Then, some idiot undergrad ran across the street, right in front of Clarke’s car. She slammed the brakes, instinctively extending her arm out so Bellamy wouldn’t go flying forward… an unfortunate habit she picked up from her mom when she first learned how to drive.

The student seemed unbothered by the fact that Clarke almost ran his dumb ass over, as Clarke sucked in a deep breath.

“Uh, Clarke,” Bellamy said in a teasing voice, and she glanced over at him… realizing that she just lost the damn bet.

“Fuck,” Clarke groaned, putting both her hands back on the wheel.

“This is too good,” Bellamy teased, as Clarke turned onto her street. “You spent all night thinking that you could beat me, and your protective instincts are why you lost.”

“Bellamy,” Clarke warned.

“You literally couldn’t stop yourself. You just had to protect the boyfriend that you pretend isn’t your boyfriend,” he teased, and Clarke’s face scrunched up.

“Okay, you win,” she mumbled.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Bellamy said, leaning toward her with his hand cupping his ear.

“You win,” Clarke grumbled, as she pulled into the parking garage. She ignored his shit-eating grin as she parked. When she undid her seatbelt, Bellamy leaned across the dash to press a kiss to her cheek. “You happy now?” Clarke asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Of course, I am. I have you as a girlfriend,” he replied with a cute little grin, before opening his door and getting out. She tried to be more annoyed with him, but it was hard when he had that goofy smile plastered on his face as they made their way to her elevator. And it certainly didn’t help that he kept an arm around her the entire walk to her apartment, and she realized just how much she missed him touching her in the last few hours.

Clarke went through her kitchen, trying to see if she had another bottle of wine somewhere tucked away. She could hear the faint sound of Bellamy turning on the tv. She let out a huff when she couldn’t find any alcohol left in her apartment.

“Clarke,” Bellamy said in a voice that sounded… panicked. Clarke ran into the living room, seeing his wide eyes fixed on the tv screen. She glanced at the screen, seeing the news headline: _Human remains found in landfill. Sources say the body belongs to Thelonious Jaha._

“Bellamy,” Clarke whispered, reaching her hand in his direction. He closed the gap between them, and Clarke buried here face into his chest.

“Any DNA evidence was burned, Clarke. Remember?” Bellamy said shakily, as his hands rubbed up and down her back. She took a deep breath, focusing on the smell of Bellamy’s detergent on his shirt.

“You’re right. We’re okay,” she murmured, but she had a feeling that was a huge lie.

 

_Echo_

 

As soon as news of Jaha’s body spread through the house, Roan quickly left, saying he had something he needed to go take care of. Once the door shut behind him, Echo ran into Marcus’ office.

“What are we going to do?” Echo asked, and Marcus downed the rest of his glass.

“We cooperate with the police if they come to us with questions. We were some of the last people to see the man, after all,” Marcus replied.

“No, we need to make a plan,” Echo snapped, and Marcus cocked his head to the side. She sat down across from him, taking in a deep breath. “I did some digging into Ontari.”

“What does Ontari have to do with anything?”

“She thinks Roan killed Jaha, and I agree,” Echo replied, and Marcus looked even more confused as he shook his head. “Ontari was at the house the night that Jaha went missing, Marcus.”

Marcus clenched his eyes shut for a few moments, but it felt like hours. “Do you know when she was at the house?” he asked quietly, not looking up at Echo.

“No, but she knows something that makes her think he did it.”

“Roan didn’t do it!” Marcus snapped, causing Echo to jump. “Look, I’ve looked into that possibility,” he sighed, and Echo bit her lip. She knew that Marcus wasn’t dumb enough to believe that Thelonious just ran away, but it was nice to hear the confirmation. “Roan spent his entire night fielding phone calls from Ontari and Nia, while constantly calling and leaving voicemails for Clarke.”

“Why did he bring the trophy back that night?” Echo asked, and Marcus immediately stood up and brushed past her on his way into the living room. “Yeah, one second, it wasn’t there, the next second, it magically appeared. He brought it here. It was the murder weapon.”

“Are you sure Roan brought it back?” Marcus asked, and Echo followed after him. He was standing right outside his door, glancing over at the shelves where the trophy sat.

“Yeah, and part of it is broken,” Echo replied, noticing how Marcus’ jaw clenched.

“I think it was broken a while back, Echo. And maybe Roan just moved the trophy back onto the shelf. One of the kids might have left it here,” he said quickly, before storming back into his office and slamming the door behind him.

Instead of arguing, Echo grabbed her things and walked out the front door, before driving over to Roan’s apartment. She didn’t even knock on his door, she just stormed in.

“Tell me why your wife thinks you murdered Thelonious Jaha,” Echo growled, and Roan glanced up at her with a strange expression on his face.

“Because I don’t have a real alibi for that entire night and she stopped by the house and apparently saw something,” Roan replied through gritted teeth.

“Look me in the eyes and tell me you spent your entire night in this apartment,” Echo pleaded, and Roan stood up with a stern look on his face.

“I only left my apartment to come pick you up like you asked me to,” he replied, and Echo believed him.

“Do you know who killed him?” Echo asked.

“Yes,” Roan said solemnly.

“Will you tell me who did it?”

“No,” he answered, but that told Echo everything she needed to know. She threw herself down on his couch, burying her face in her hands. Of course, _Clarke_ was responsible. She probably just made Roan bring the murder weapon back, and he did it because for some reason he is so damn obsessed with her. Maybe Marcus knew the truth too, and was protecting her because of her mom or because of his strange obsession with watching out for this year’s batch of interns.

“What is it about her?” Echo finally blurted out, and Roan swallowed before waving her off. “No, really, I want to know. Because you knew better than to go for the Griffin girl. You knew exactly what kind of family she came from, you knew all the skeletons in her closet, and you knew there was no way in hell you’d get a happy ending there. And now, you’re covering for her when she isn’t even speaking to you!”

“That’s not what’s happening!” Roan snapped, and Echo cocked her head to the side, waiting for him to continue. “Look, Jaha attacked Clarke that night. Her killing him was an accident. I’m not helping her get away with it. I’m just staying quiet about what I know.”

“But Ontari thinks you did it, which is going to be a problem for you,” Echo replied, raising an eyebrow. “You willing to deal with the consequences for some girl who doesn’t give a shit about you?”

“Echo, stop,” Roan groaned, rubbing his temples. “Clarke and I are slowly becoming friends again. She’s moved on. She’s with Bellamy now, which I am fine with,” he said sternly, but Echo knew he wasn’t fine with it, at all. “And I think I have a good plan for getting out of this.”

“Was that before or after your wife tipped the police off to the body in the landfill?” Echo asked, and Roan let out another groan. But it wasn’t like Echo was wrong. No one just finds pieces of a body scattered throughout a landfill unless they were looking for them.

“I have a plan, okay? Just trust me,” he huffed, and Echo bit her lip. “And please don’t tell anyone what I’ve told you tonight. It’ll be my word against yours in court.”

“Fine,” Echo grumbled, standing up. “But if it comes down to it, I’ll choose you over Clarke every time.”

“It’s not going to come down to it. We’re all going to be okay,” he sighed, and Echo gave him a once over.

“Are you in love with her?” Echo had to ask.

“No,” Roan replied, and Echo realized he was telling the truth.

“Then why?”

“She’s like me, Echo. There aren’t a lot of people like me out there,” he whispered, and Echo looked down at her feet. She couldn’t argue with that, not when she tried to bully Marcus into taking Emori’s case for the exact same reason. 

“If this all blows up, Roan, she’s gonna end up being a lot more like you,” Echo said, and Roan’s jaw clenched.

“At least she’ll go back to her family for a good reason,” he huffed.

“Is there such a thing as a good reason when it comes to selling your soul?” Echo joked, and Roan forced out a laugh.

“No, but there are better ones,” he shrugged.

 

_Monty_

 

He tried to walk into the lecture hall, but something grabbed him by the shirt and started pulling.

“What the hell?” Monty shouted, before feeling a hand covering up his mouth. He blinked a few times, realizing he had been pulled into a storage closet.

“We all need to talk,” Murphy huffed, and Monty realized that the other three were also in the closet.

“Someone talked,” Raven snapped, raising an eyebrow at Monty.

“Why are you looking at me?” Monty snapped, although he was also under the assumption that someone talked. People don’t just find charred-up bits of a human being in a landfill unless they knew what they were looking for.

“Because you have been avoiding all of us since we got back from break,” Murphy growled.

“That’s because when I look at you guys, all I think about is the man we murdered,” Monty whispered, pushing Murphy back. He knew at this point there was nothing he could do to fix what happened. He couldn’t just go talk without getting into huge trouble with the police. At best, he’s looking at accessory to murder charges along with a few obstructions of justice ones. “And you’re all forgetting the one person who has the most reason to turn us all in.”

“Professor Kane wouldn’t set us up like that,” Bellamy huffed, and Monty threw his head back in frustration.

“No, he’s right,” Clarke jumped in, and of course, she was backing up her damn boyfriend. Monty missed the days when they fought about everything. “We’re just five law students. He’s Marcus Kane, the defense attorney that does the shadiest shit to get his horrible clients off. Who do you think the police would want for this? Us, or him?”

Monty swallowed, realizing that Clarke was actually making sense. It would be stupid for Kane to turn them in at this point, especially given how many people in this town would love to see him go down for it. Plus, there were five of them and only one of him… three if they counted Roan and Echo. They outnumbered him.

“Okay, let’s just get through this class, and live our lives like nothing is wrong except that we are overworked and underpaid,” Bellamy said, before opening the closet door. They all filed out, earning a few weird looks from their other classmates. Monty contemplated sitting in his normal spot… but the other four were all sitting together in a row, which would make him look like a total asshole if he didn’t sit with them.

He decided to sit next to Raven, since she was the least responsible for how his life had fallen apart. It wasn’t enough that he was traumatized by what happened that night. But he couldn’t live with lying to Harper like this… so he called off the wedding. Not permanently, of course. He still loved Harper and wanted to find a way to live with what he did and still be with her. He just lied, said he was super depressed and having bad anxiety problems, and he didn’t want to start the next chapter of their life together until he got it under control… she bought it, of course. She had been nothing but loving toward him, so understanding. And it was _killing_ him.

Professor Kane came in, nearly sprinting toward the chalk board.

“I meet with Clarke and Emori once a week,” Raven whispered, and Monty whipped his head around to look at her in confusion. “We take self-defense classes together and then talk about what happened that night. It helps,” she offered, and Monty looked down at his notebook. “I’ve slept better since we started doing it. Maybe you want to join us?”

“I doubt any of you could understand what’s going on with me,” he muttered, leaning back in his chair. “I’m lying to the only person I give a shit about.” Not to mention that Harper was all he had left after his falling out with his mother.

“If anyone understands that, it’s me,” Raven said sternly.

“Who can tell me what the fifth amendment is?” Kane almost shouted, and Monty jerked his head forward. “How about you, Miss Griffin?”

“Assures your right to protection from self-incrimination,” Clarke replied, and Monty swallowed as Kane’s eyes scanned over all five of them.

“Correct,” he finally said, before crossing back to the table. “Some people think that clarifying will help their case. In an ideal world, that would be true. But that’s not the world we live in. You see, when police officers bring in your clients, they will take whatever the client says and manipulate it into supporting the prosecution.”

Then, Monty felt Raven grip his arm nervously. He took a deep breath, realizing that this wasn’t the lesson on today’s syllabus. Professor Kane was sending them a message.

“Doesn’t matter if it is a simple interview asking easy questions. Everything you say can and will be used against you. So, when in doubt, shut your mouth.”

 

_Marcus_

 

The kids were all furiously working in the living room, looking into his newest murderer client’s alibi. He called Echo and Roan into his office, but couldn’t help but notice how nervous all five of the interns looked. He knew that the lecture earlier had scared the shit out of them, but they needed to be reminded that opening up about anything that happened that night will just fuck them over in the end.

Once Roan and Echo were seated, Marcus shut the door.

“I need to know what Ontari knows,” Marcus said calmly, before sitting down at his desk. Roan shot an annoyed look at Echo, and Marcus rolled his eyes. He didn’t have the time for their games.

“We think she saw Jaha’s body in the house,” Echo said, and Roan’s eyes widened furiously. “Oh please, Marcus already knows he was killed here.”

“And that Clarke was the one to kill him,” Marcus lied, and Roan’s head whipped around quickly to glare at him. Bellamy had told him not too long ago that Clarke had lied to Roan about what happened that night… which Marcus had to admit was smart. Roan would have no problem with turning Bellamy and the others over for this. But him thinking it was Clarke… that bought them all some time. “Look, it was self-defense, and it wasn’t like Jaha was an upstanding citizen to begin with. All three of us can agree that we need to help her out.”

Roan’s lips parted as he thought over this, clearly not trusting Marcus completely.

“All of the kids helped her get rid of the body, not just Bellamy. They’re all involved,” Marcus confessed, and that surprised Echo. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you two sooner, but I thought as long as there was no body to be found, it would be better for both of you if you didn’t know.” He knew neither of them could argue with that. He was protecting them from having to perjure themselves. “Now, what does Ontari know?”

“I think she saw the body,” Roan murmured, and Marcus’ stomach sank. He remembered seeing her driving that night, having a horrible feeling that something was off there. And if Ontari saw the body… she would have gotten some kind of proof, so she could blackmail Roan with it. “She thinks I did it, of course. And I think she was the one who contacted the police about searching the landfill. It was a threat to me.”

“You need to make nice with Ontari,” Echo snapped, and Marcus bit his lip. Ontari was out of control at this point, meaning Roan would have to do a hell of a lot more than that to get her to make this all go away.

“She’s moving back into my apartment,” Roan said through gritted teeth. “She said she’ll drop this whole thing, in exchange for my, uh, assistance in her new campaign.”

“Agree for now. We can always get you out of this later,” Marcus sighed. They just needed time to come up with a plan, and they needed the public panic about Jaha’s death to die down so that none of the kids did something stupid. “Echo, reach out to your contacts and try to get better surveillance of what Ontari is up to.”

Echo pushed herself up out of the seat, before heading toward the door. Marcus nodded, and Echo shut the door behind her.

“Do you actually think Ontari will drop this?” Marcus asked, resting his head on his desk.

“As long as she’s getting her way, yeah. Doesn’t mean she won’t bring it back later on,” Roan replied with his mouth tensed.

“One of us has to give Clarke the plan B speech,” Marcus said apologetically, and Roan threw his head back.

“I’ll do it,” Roan whispered, and Marcus nodded. It would be better coming from him anyway, since he actually knew from firsthand experience what could happen to Clarke.

 

_Roan_

 

He waited anxiously in his office for Clarke to come in. The minutes felt like hours, and he almost died of relief when he heard a soft knock on the door.

“Shut the door,” Roan said quietly, and Clarke’s face shifted into panic. She slowly shut the door, before crossing her arms. “You and I need to have a conversation that you’re really not going to like.”

“Roan—”

“Marcus knows about all of it, Clarke. And he told me that the others are all in on it too,” Roan said, not blaming Clarke for keeping him in the dark. The less he knew, the better for both of them. “Now, there is a body in the equation, and things don’t look great.”

“What are you saying?”

“That you need to be prepared for the worst-case scenario,” Roan said, looking down at his nervous hands. “Did I ever tell you what happened to my sister?”

“No,” Clarke said, almost as a question.

“My sister broke off from the family a long time ago, in a much more dramatic way than you did,” Roan explained, feeling Clarke’s eyes burning on him. “Years later, she got into some trouble. I still don’t know if she actually had a part in the guy’s murder or not, but it looked really bad for her.”

“Roan, you don’t have to keep going,” Clarke said nervously, and Roan forced himself to look up at her terrified face.

“No, you need to hear this, Clarke,” he warned, and Clarke sucked in a breath. “My sister knew too much about what my mother was up to, she knew too much about too many dangerous, powerful people. And since she wasn’t trusted by the family anymore, no one trusted that she would keep her mouth shut in the interrogations. After all, who wouldn’t sell out other people if it meant getting a lesser sentence?”

“Roan, stop.”

“I don’t know who made the order. Could have been my own mother, could have been someone more important, could have been a stranger. I’ll never know. But she was murdered long before any arrest was made,” Roan finished, and he could see Clarke’s hand start to shake slightly. He knew he didn’t have to spell this out any more for Clarke. She knew that her family would have no problem taking her out if they thought she would turn them in.

“How bad is it looking?” Clarke whispered, and Roan bit his lip. He didn’t want to scare her with specifics, didn’t want to point out that there was a broken piece of the murder weapon out there somewhere, or that his psychopath of a wife was a witness for where Jaha was murdered.

“Bad, but not bad enough yet,” he replied, and she pressed her lips together. “Marcus, Echo, and I are working on it. But if plan A fails, you need to be ready to go through with plan B.”

He waited as the realization washed over Clarke. She shook her head frantically, and he could see tears start to form in her eyes. He walked over to her, holding his hands out to her. She hesitantly rested her hands on top of his, her lip quivering. He knew that the last thing she wanted to do was go back to her family… but they could make all of this go away.

“Here is what you’ll do,” Roan said calmly, and Clarke’s eyes met his. “If things get worse, you will go to your grandfather. You will tell him that you found out Thelonious Jaha murdered your father, and you will say that you murdered him to avenge Jake’s death.”

“That’s not what happened,” Clarke snapped.

“Doesn’t matter. It’s the story he’ll believe. And it’ll make him think that you’re one of them again,” Roan explained, and Clarke looked down at the ground with furrowed brows. She knew he was right. Her grandfather would see this as a sign that Clarke was ready to come back, and see it as the leverage he needs to keep Clarke under control. “You’ll ask him to help you, and he’ll make sure all of this disappears.”

“Only if I agree to come back permanently,” Clarke added in, and Roan nodded.

“There’s a reason it’s plan B,” he sighed. She jerked her hands out of his grasp, and started pacing. “And it might not have to be permanent. You got out before, you can do it again. We just need to buy ourselves some time.”

“No, I can’t,” Clarke decided, and Roan bit the inside of his mouth. “I can’t go back to that.”

“Clarke, please, think about it,” Roan pleaded, and she looked up at him with concerned eyes. “If there is anything that can lead the police to you, you will likely end up dead. Not just that, all your friends will go down for it. Marcus, Echo, and I can steer clear of it if we’re careful, but the other four will end up in jail.”

“Not if I make a statement that it was me alone who did it and it was self-defense,” Clarke said stubbornly, and Roan let out a groan.

“Your family will _kill_ you before you get that chance. What don’t you understand about that?” he growled. “And then, the other four will all start turning on each other in a panic, and Bellamy will get the brunt of it given his record and the hunch I have that he was your greatest coconspirator.”

 _That_ caught Clarke’s undivided attention. He tried not to get too hung up on the fact that it was Bellamy that was getting Clarke to understand how fucked they all were. It wasn’t like Roan hadn’t seen how close the two of them had gotten. He wasn’t blind. But he also wasn’t angry. Clarke deserved someone who cared about her like Bellamy does. It just sometimes hurt to see it.

She turned to leave, but stopped herself. “I can’t believe you were right,” Clarke whispered.

“What?”

“When we were fighting about Ontari, you said I was gonna end up just like you, that maybe money wasn’t my price… but something would drag me back there.”

“Clarke, I didn’t want to be right,” Roan pleaded, but Clarke waved him off.

“You’re always right, Roan. I know that now,” Clarke huffed, before walking out of his office.

 

_Bellamy_

 

Clarke was taking longer in the shower than normal, which concerned Bellamy. She only did that when she was crying, and it took all the willpower in him to keep from going in there to check on her. But there needed to be boundaries. Clarke knew she could cry with him. She was choosing to cry on her own. So, he just sat on his bed, waiting for her anxiously. It wasn’t like he would be able to sleep without her there anyway. That was proven on Christmas Eve after a particularly nasty fight with Octavia over Atom, when at four in the morning, he ended up calling Clarke. She stayed on the phone with him until he fell back asleep, and did the same thing the following night. As much as he knew that Clarke depended on him to make her feel safe, he also knew he did the same thing with her. He didn’t feel completely secure until she was right there beside him.

“Want to talk about it?” Bellamy asked when Clarke came out of the bathroom.

“I had a talk with Roan today,” Clarke said seriously, and Bellamy took a deep breath. “He thinks things are looking bad for us.”

“Did he say why he thinks that?” Bellamy asked nervously, as Clarke threw one of Bellamy’s t-shirts over her head.

“No, and I didn’t ask. It’s better that we know less so we can seem surprised if it comes up in an interrogation room,” Clarke replied, and he swallowed. He didn’t like how casually Clarke was mentioning interrogation rooms. “I don’t know if they’re just panicking because there’s a body now or if it’s more than that. It could be nothing. They could just be nervous like the others are because of the news coverage,” she reassured, and Bellamy nodded. Clarke climbed into bed with him, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“Come here,” Bellamy pleaded, gesturing for Clarke to rest her head on his chest. She snuggled up to him, wrapping her arm around his waist, and Bellamy leaned down to press a kiss to the top of her head. “Everything is going to be okay,” he murmured. “You know, I’d do anything it took to make sure nothing happened to you, right?”

Clarke’s head popped up, looking straight at him with those gorgeous blue eyes. “I would too, you know,” she whispered, and Bellamy pressed a slow kiss to her lips. She kissed him back sweetly, and Bellamy cupped her face in his hands.

“How about we distract ourselves?” he teased before biting her bottom lip. Clarke climbed on top of him, pressing her chest hard against him as her lips crashed into his. His hands immediately slid under her shirt, feeling the soft skin on her back. She moaned into his mouth just seconds before her tongue found his.

One of his hands drifted down her back, resting on her ass, pushing her against his erection. She grinded back into him, as her fingers found their way into his curls.

“I want this off,” Bellamy murmured, tugging at her, technically his, shirt. She sat up, prying her lips off his with a pout, before tugging the t-shirt over her head. As much as he loved how sexy Clarke looked in his clothes… he loved seeing her without any so much more. His lips parted as he took in the sight of Clarke’s heavy breasts. He immediately started palming them, looking up at how she was sexily biting her bottom lip. “So beautiful,” Bellamy whispered, flicking her nipple with his thumb, before she leaned down and crashed her lips back into his.

He flipped her onto her back, kissing his way down her neck frantically. Her fingers found their way into his curls again, tugging him lower to where she really wanted him. He smirked, before kissing down to her breast. His hand was massaging the other as he smirked against her skin. As much as he loved the nights where he and Clarke weren’t rushing, were just slowly exploring each other for hours… he loved when Clarke was impatient, tugging him where she needed him. His impatient princess was so sexy when she just gave in and let herself need him. He loved feeling her nails in his back when he was teasing her. He loved the way she would beg for more. He loved the desperate gasp that always escaped her lips when his tongue first made contact with her nipple.

He never got to pay as much attention to her breasts as he wanted. He could caress, kiss, and massage them all night if she let him. He loved how perfectly they fit in his hands and how turned on it made Clarke. The downside was always that she would get impatient, a lot like tonight.

“Bell, please,” Clarke whispered, and Bellamy removed his mouth from her other nipple with a pop, before raising an eyebrow at her. “I need you,” she whined.

“What do you mean?” he teased, before running his tongue over her nipple again. “What is it you need, baby?”

“Your cock,” she whispered innocently with wide eyes, and Bellamy buried his face in between her breasts, trying to control himself. This girl was going to kill him. “Bell, I want you inside me.” He could feel his cock twitch at those words, and he knew this would be over way too soon. But, he sat up, reaching into the nightstand to grab a condom. He tugged off what remained of his clothes, and he heard Clarke tug off her panties excitedly.

Clarke’s lips found his jawline as he fumbled with getting it on. “You know, I’ve been wanting you all day,” Clarke murmured against his skin. He let out a moan as she started sucking onto his neck, and his eyes fluttered shut. “You kept putting your hand on my leg,” she whispered right into his ear, her wet lips making contact as she spoke.

He swallowed, knowing exactly what she was talking about. It was a secret turn-on of Clarke’s, him putting a possessive arm around her or resting his hand on her thigh while in public… it did it for her, and he has taken complete advantage of it.

“You like it when I do that, don’t you baby?” he murmured, and she nodded before trailing kisses back down his neck. He finally got the condom on, and pushed her back onto her back. “Tell me why you like it, princess,” he ordered, before his lips started trailing down her neck.

“Because I’m _yours_ ,” Clarke said breathlessly, and Bellamy smirked against her skin. “Now, fuck me, Bell,” she ordered, and fuck, she was sexy when she was telling him what to do.

He sat up, pushing her legs apart. She was biting her bottom lip, watching him closely as he lined himself up with her entrance. Once he sank into her, a long string of curses escaped his lips. It had been maybe two days since they last did this… but it felt like a lifetime ago.

After a few thrusts, he settled back down on top of her, pressing a greedy kiss to her lips. Her lips parted immediately, letting his tongue dive in, searching eagerly for hers. Her hands were on his lower back, tugging him to try and make him thrust harder into her.

“So impatient,” he teased, and Clarke bit his bottom lip.

“Can’t help it. You stretch me out so good,” she whined, and Bellamy let out a guttural groan once his lips captured hers again. She moaned into his mouth, and he swallowed the gorgeous sound as his fingers wove their way into her damp hair.

If they weren’t so greedy or ravenous, he probably would have lasted longer. But Clarke felt so perfect, and sounded too intoxicating. His hand slid down her stomach, before he started gently rubbing her clit. It didn’t take long until she was thrashing against him, her screams escaping her lips. He was lost in how gorgeously his name flowed off her lips, in how beautiful her face rested as she came undone for him.

He didn’t last much longer. She was whispering so many filthy encouragements into his ear, telling him how much she loved his cock, how only he could make her feel this good. And when she whispered that she _needed_ him to come for her, he was lost. He grunted and moaned into her skin, burying his face into her neck.

His favorite thing about sleeping with Clarke is that neither of them ever bothered to put clothes back on when it was time to actually sleep. She’d curl up against his side, and there were no layers separating their skin. It was nice when he woke up in the middle of the night, getting to rest his hands on her soft skin until he calmed down enough to go back to sleep.

Once he turned the lights off, Clarke was sleepily kissing his shoulder, and Bellamy’s hand rested over Clarke’s, that was sitting right over his heart. It took a long time for Clarke to fall asleep, probably because of whatever it was that Roan said to her this afternoon. His mind kept drifting back to it too, trying to resist the urge to drive over to Kane’s house and demand to know what the plan was.

By the time Clarke’s breathing evened out, Bellamy began to relax. He had to believe that this would all work out, that there was a solution. It wasn’t like any of them were bad people. They were all just trying to protect each other. There had to be a way for all of this to be okay one day.

 

**The Previous Summer**

_Wells_

 

He was twiddling his thumbs nervously as he waited out in the waiting room. He checked his bag again, making sure he still had all the evidence he needed. This was the third time he had tried to do this, but every other time he had chickened out. But it needed to be done.

Wells kept going back, of course, thinking about the fact that it was his _father_ he was about to throw under the bus. But like many kids who grew up in families like this, Wells had to learn that his father wasn’t a good person. At least Clarke had the benefit of knowing that her parents didn’t actively participate in some of this shit, just benefited from it. Wells didn’t get that luxury. Jake Griffin was just the most recent in the long list of people who died by Thelonious’ hand.

“Wells, it’s good to see you,” Dante Wallace said with a huge grin, extending his arm out to shake Wells’ hand. He stood up, shaking it firmly in his own.

“Great to see you too,” Wells replied, and Dante gestured for him to follow. He knew this was Wells’ last chance to bolt, to walk away from this. He knew that there would be consequences for what Wells was about to do, but he wasn’t sure he could live with what he knew anymore. Jake Griffin was a good man, a man who would have done a lot of good for this state… a man who only died because he accidentally found out how exactly that senate seat “opened up” for him.

Wells decided to sit down, remembering that he had the truth on his side. He had to do this. It was what was right.

“So, what do I owe the pleasure?” Dante asked, as he shut his office door.

“Well, I found out about something that you might be interested in, and I couldn’t go to my father with this,” Wells started, pulling the folder out of his bag.

“Sounds serious,” Wallace observed.

“I mean, if I’m coming to the District Attorney with it, it’s gonna be a little serious,” Wells tried to joke, but it came out flat. He tried to open his mouth to speak, but no words came out. So, he just slid the folder over to him, tensing as Wallace’s eyes widened.

“How did you get this?” he asked nervously.

“Stole it from my dad,” Wells replied, and Dante nodded knowingly.

“You took a big risk bringing this to me,” Dante murmured, flipping through the pages with an outraged face.

“Do you know what to do? To make this right?” Wells asked nervously, and Dante’s eyes softened as he looked up at Wells.

“Yes, I do. Don’t worry. I’ll make things right,” he reassured, and Wells let out a relieved breath.


	14. Stay With Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is um a lot. You'll see what I mean. Lots of angst, lots of paranoia, lots of mob mentality based decision making... turns out, none of our babies are really that good at doing the murder. 
> 
> Anyway, this chapter and the following chapter are going to be real intense, dudes. After next chapter, there's gonna be a bit of a time jump, and I'll probably have to take a small break from writing this so I can get the endgame more concrete.

_Monty_

 

Raven was right, of course. Talking about it helped. He was driving himself crazy trying to keep it all inside, not able to tell Harper what was really going on, while cutting off the only people that actually understood what he was going through.

The night before, he went to the class with Emori and Raven. Clarke cancelled last minute, apparently having a problem with Bellamy. Emori talked about the episodes she had been having. Raven and Monty talked about how hard it was to lie to Luna and Harper. And Monty found out he wasn’t the only person who had been waking up screaming.

He felt better… until he got to Kane’s house the next morning.

“Marcus,” Roan said frantically, jogging into the living room with a panicked look on his face. Monty glanced over at Clarke who had a tense expression on her face. He bit his lip, reminding himself that Roan and Echo now knew about the murder, had apparently figured it out on their own… except that they both thought that Clarke was the one to do it.

“Not a good time,” Marcus mumbled, flipping through the notes that Murphy had brought him for their new drug case.

“Abby Griffin was brought in for questioning earlier this morning,” Roan said.

“What?” Clarke snapped, and the others all exchanged nervous looks.

“Why?” Marcus asked slowly, his voice drenched in panic.

“Confirming your alibi. Except she revealed the fight you had with Jaha, claiming you threatened him,” Roan said quietly, and Marcus dropped the notes onto the ground.

“She didn’t even witness the fight,” Marcus groaned, and Monty felt his stomach drop.

“It gave them probable cause. They’re on their way over with a warrant to search the house,” Echo snapped, storming in, looking like she just got off the phone. Monty glanced around the room, seeing the trophy perfectly cleaned on the shelves, with that damn missing piece that no one could fucking find. It wasn’t in the house, but the police hadn’t found it on the body either…

Then, he noticed the rug. It was almost exactly like the one that Jaha had been wrapped in when they burned it, in the exact place. He knew that the others cleaned off all the blood, but he was terrified they didn’t do a good enough job. He should have helped. At least then he would know for a fact they were thorough.

When the police arrived just minutes later, all the interns were kicked out of the house. The five of them stood on the sidewalk, nervously pacing about as they waited for the search to be over.

“Take a deep breath,” Murphy whispered, and Monty threw his head back and looked up at the sky. Marcus would have cleaned the house, knowing what they did. After all, Jaha was murdered in _his_ house. If anything was found there, the police would have a hard time buying that Marcus wasn’t in on it. He had as much to lose as they did.

“How did Abby Griffin even know about the fight?” Raven asked, and Monty shrugged. It wasn’t like Clarke really talked to her mother much, from what he heard.

“I think she and Marcus are screwing,” Murphy murmured, and Monty furrowed his brows at him. “Okay, Emori might have listened in on a conversation that made her think that.” Monty had to smirk at that, since Emori seemed to be doing a lot of that these days. She literally knew everything that was going on in that house last semester, all because none of them had realized how closely she was paying attention.

“Do you think Clarke knows her boss is screwing her mom?” Raven asked, and Monty turned to look at Clarke, who was in a pretty heated discussion with Bellamy about twenty yards away. They couldn’t hear them, since Bellamy and Clarke were whispering. But the body language was clear… this was a _fight_.

“What’s going on with them?” Monty asked, before pressing his lips together. Murphy turned to follow Monty’s gaze, looking at the two of them. Clarke’s arms were crossed, and she had a defiant look on her face. But Bellamy… he looked like he was struggling to get his thoughts together.

“They’ve been fighting for a few days now. All Bellamy told me was that Clarke was being stupid,” Murphy sighed.  

“I’m sure it’s nothing. I mean, they fight all the time, remember?” Raven reassured, but that didn’t make the horrible feeling in Monty’s stomach go away.

“Yeah, Clarke probably just said something extra princess-y, and it rubbed Bellamy the wrong way,” Murphy suggested, and Monty turned away, pacing back toward the house. He could still see the officers in the windows, digging through the entire house.

He wished his biggest problem was that Clarke and Bellamy chose today of all days to have a couple’s spat. But, no. His biggest problem was that all of them were _screwed_.

 

_Marcus_

 

“Has this trophy always been broken?” one of the officers asked, gesturing to the trophy up on the shelves.

“I think one of the interns broke it last fall,” he shrugged, walking toward him as casually as he could. “It used to be how I reward their hard work, but we have some very competitive students this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if Monty and Raven physically fought over it, breaking it somehow,” he said with a smirk, and the officer chuckled slightly, before moving on. Marcus glanced up, seeing Roan’s stoic expression from across the room.

His stomach turned when another officer started searching the floor in the foyer, exactly where Jaha’s body had been. But he had cleaned that exact spot over and over again. He knew that Echo had done the same too.

When the group of officers who went upstairs jogged back downstairs, Marcus’ eyes flickered up to Echo who was following after them with a terrified look on her face.

“There’s nothing up there. Some of Jaha’s things, but his phone and wallet and keys are all gone,” one of the officers explained to the detective, who just nodded along.

Marcus stood very still, as each officer filed out of his house, finding absolutely nothing. He didn’t like how Echo seemed… something was wrong.

Once it was just the three of them in the house, Marcus turned to face her. “What?”

“Where did you hide his things?” Echo whispered, and Marcus’ stomach dropped.

“I thought you hid them,” Marcus said, before whipping his head around to look at Roan, who looked just as surprised. _Fuck._

He started pacing, as Roan went to bring the kids back inside. The phone, wallet, and keys were here the night of the murder. Marcus had moved them into his room specifically. He ran upstairs, before storming into his room, tearing it apart to look for them. But they were _gone_.

He clenched his eyes shut, hearing streams of questions coming out of the kids’ mouths from downstairs. The only people that had been in this house had been all of them, and his clients. His clients would have no reason to suspect anything, which meant that one of the kids must have taken them.

After taking a few deep breaths, he descended the stairs, trying to think through which one of them would do that. Not Bellamy, since he had been very upfront about what he has done. Clarke would probably know better. Murphy could have done it, since he clearly didn’t trust Marcus and would want some leverage. Raven too, now that he thought about it. And Monty… well, Marcus wasn’t going to take him off the suspect list, since he was an erratic mess these days.

But Marcus didn’t really _believe_ that one of them would do it. He looked over each of their panicked faces… and it just didn’t feel right. He glanced over at Roan, seeing him deep in thought. Then, Marcus remembered one other person who he knew had been in the house that he left off the list… _Ontari._

 

_Roan_

 

He paced in the police station lobby, waiting for Marcus. After the search yesterday, Roan had been convinced they were in the clear. When Marcus was brought in for questioning, Roan thought he could die.

Marcus didn’t say anything as they walked out into the parking lot, but his face said everything. It was over. They were _screwed._

Once both car doors shut, Roan took a deep breath.

“They’re not looking at me,” Marcus finally said quietly, and Roan furrowed his brows. “They wanted my verification of what was on Wells’ phone, since they think that phone was on Jaha when he was murdered.”

“The phone that Emori stole?” Roan asked, and Marcus nodded.

“We need to make sure that Murphy destroyed it, especially since the officers are convinced that whoever has that phone now is who murdered Thelonious,” he explained, and Roan put his car in reverse to pull out of the parking lot. “I need you to take me to Murphy’s apartment, and then we need to talk to Clarke.”

Roan’s stomach dropped, before he shook his head. He knew it looked bad… but there had to be another solution.

“Look, we only have to if things don’t go well with Murphy and Emori. I need to figure out what happened to that phone,” Marcus groaned, and Roan turned right, heading toward campus.

They drove in silence, as Roan made a list of every single thing that was going wrong. Abby gave the police Marcus’ motive, which might as well have given motive for every single person working for him too. They still hadn’t located the broken piece of the trophy. Monty still looked like he would break if the police even asked him one question. Jaha’s wallet, phone, and keys were all missing. They had no idea if Wells’ phone had been destroyed or disposed of yet. Ontari had some kind of proof that Jaha was murdered in that house, and whatever it was… it was enough to make her think that Roan did it.

He waited patiently in the car, waiting for Marcus to come back. He texted Clarke, asking where she was, just in case he needed to go talk to her.

Marcus was gone just a little too long, and looked flustered when he got back in the car.

“Do they have the phone?” Roan asked nervously.

“Murphy believes Emori destroyed it, but he can’t get ahold of her. She’s not answering her phone and she’s not at work or in her apartment,” Marcus murmured, shaking his head.

Roan threw back his head, thinking this over. Emori had no reason to really trust any of them. She probably knew that if things went south, most of them would have no problem letting her take the fall for all of it… meaning it would be smarter for her to keep the phone, to have some kind of leverage.

Marcus didn’t have to tell Roan… he just started driving to Bellamy’s apartment, where Clarke was staying. It broke his heart having to tell her about plan B the first time… but this, this was going to hurt so much worse. It was one thing to tell her that it was a possibility, it was another altogether to tell her that it was her horrifying new reality.

Marcus came up with him, knocking quietly on the door. Bellamy answered the door, with a tense expression on his face.

“What’s going on?” he asked in a huff, and the two of them walked into his apartment. Clarke was sitting on his couch, staring at them with wide eyes.

“We needed to talk to Clarke, and we couldn’t have this conversation over the phone,” Marcus explained before Roan could even open his mouth. Clarke’s eyes met Roan’s, and she already knew what this was about. “Bellamy, could you give us a moment?”

Roan’s eyes looked back at Bellamy, who had a furious expression on his face. “Is this about you guys asking Clarke to run to her family for help?” he growled, and Roan looked back at Clarke, realizing that she had told him about this.

“Okay, Bellamy, how about you and I talk?” Marcus said in a semi-threatening tone, gesturing toward Bellamy’s kitchen. Bellamy looked back at Clarke, with a warning look in his eyes, before he followed after Marcus.

Roan put his hands in his pockets, looking down at the ground.

“How bad?” Clarke finally whispered, and Roan forced himself to look up at her.

“Bad doesn’t even cover it,” Roan replied weakly, hearing the muffled spat between Bellamy and Marcus in the other room. Clarke swallowed, before pushing herself up off the couch. “I really thought after yesterday we were in the clear, Clarke. I’m so sorry,” Roan pleaded with her, and she waved him off.

“You did what you could,” she finally said, looking at him with an earnest face. Roan glanced back toward the kitchen, hearing Marcus break down what needed to happen, the same conversation Roan had with Clarke just last week.

“He’s not going to be okay with this, is he?” Roan blurted out, knowing that this couldn’t be easy for Bellamy to wrap his head around. Clarke had probably told him all the horror stories. He didn’t grow up in the same world that Roan and Clarke had… he didn’t know just how inevitable this was going to be for Clarke.

“He will be once he knows what will happen to me if I don’t,” Clarke said solemnly, and Roan nodded along. Bellamy seemed to be very protective of Clarke. Hell, he had to be if he helped her kill a man. Not that Roan would have done it any differently than Bellamy did.

“I’m so sorry,” Roan whispered again.

“Me too,” Clarke murmured.

 

_Bellamy_

 

He waited a few moments after Roan and Kane left his apartment, forcing a few deep breaths. He couldn’t believe everything Kane just told him. Clarke had said her family was bad… but somehow, he hadn’t believed just how bad they really were.

“Bell, talk to me,” Clarke said quietly, and he turned to look at her.

“You can’t do it,” Bellamy said sternly, even though he knew that she very much could, and likely would. What he really meant was that he couldn’t handle it if she did… just to cover up for what _he_ did.

“I have to. It’s all spiraling out of control. We don’t know where that damn phone is, and Ontari is looming over all of us with whatever it was she saw that night,” Clarke explained calmly, and Bellamy buried his face in his hands as he leaned back against the door.

“I could confess, Clarke,” he whispered.

“You do that, and I’ll do the same exact thing,” Clarke threatened, and he jerked his head up.

“You didn’t kill a man,” he snapped.

“I tried to. Pushed him over the rails. He could have died,” Clarke said quickly, and he started shaking his head rapidly.

“Stop it,” he growled, stepping toward her.

“I go talk to my grandfather, and neither of us gets busted for this, Bell,” Clarke replied.

“There has to be another way!” Bellamy yelled. She looked up at him with those pleading eyes as she slowly stepped toward him, and rested her head right on his chest. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, resting his head on top of hers. The worst part of all of this was that he knew she was right. He couldn’t risk the possibility that she got dragged into an interrogation room, not with how trigger happy her family is. Clarke had told him the story about Roan’s sister, and it had cost him nights of sleep.

There was no point in having this fight with her. It was the same fight they had been having for days. The only difference is that it was a possibility before. Now it was real.

“We could run,” he whispered, and Clarke’s head popped up to look at him. “Get new names, go somewhere no one knows us.”

“You’d never see your sister again if we did that,” Clarke argued, and Bellamy clenched his eyes shut. “More importantly, we’d leave behind six people who would take the fall for what we did.”

“What I did,” he corrected.

“What we did,” Clarke snapped, looking up at him with defiant eyes, her brows furrowed in his direction.

“You didn’t kill him,” Bellamy whispered, and Clarke’s jaw clenched.

“You were protecting me,” Clarke said with raised eyebrows. He opened his mouth to speak, but he didn’t know what to say at this point. Maybe he was going to say that he had to or that he’d do it again or that the idea of losing her was too terrifying for him… “Let me do the same for you,” Clarke said, before rubbing her eyes and pulling away.

“Clarke,” he said shakily, and she turned back around, her eyes full of tears. He closed the distance between them, before kissing her as tenderly as he possibly could. Both his hands were cupping her face, his thumbs pushing the tears off her cheeks. Her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him close… and Bellamy didn’t know what he would do when she eventually pulled away.

They had spent one too many nights where he and Clarke stayed up too late, whispering in the darkness. She’d tell him all about her family, all about what happened to her… and she’d confess how scared she was that she’d end up back there. It was probably her worst fear… and now she was willingly walking back into all of it.

And Bellamy was terrified.

 

_Echo_

 

Shumway was the guy’s name. It was all over the news. Echo wouldn’t believe it if she didn’t know exactly how it happened.

“I guess we know who stole his wallet and stuff,” Echo murmured as Roan downed the rest of his glass.

“She probably did it after we had the first conversation about her going back to her family,” Roan suggested, and Echo nodded along. The easiest way for Clarke’s family to make everything go away was to pin it on someone else. Planting the wallet, keys, and Thelonious’ phone on the kid made that easier.

“We should feel guilty that an innocent person is going to jail, right?” Echo huffed, before kicking her feet up on the coffee table.

“Shumway isn’t innocent. He’s literally Jaha’s hitman. Check the list Clarke made you,” Roan groaned, before sitting up to pour himself another glass. Now that he mentioned it, that name rang a bell. It was probably easier to frame someone who had a complicated relationship with the man already.

“I think you’ve had enough,” Echo said, before Roan shot her a dirty look. She bit her lip, scared to ask him about what was really bothering him. It wasn’t enough that Roan had unresolved issues with Clarke as it was… but her situation hit a little too close to home for Roan. And it was making him fall apart. “There might be a way to get her out of this,” Echo offered, and Roan’s head shot back up.

“You can’t even figure out how to get me out of this,” he growled, and Echo bit the inside of her mouth, struggling not to go off on him. It wasn’t her fault that he willingly went back to his family after struggling financially for all of five minutes. At least Clarke was doing this for a good reason.

She was about to go off on him, when the front door swung open. Echo stood up, ready to ask Marcus all about the client he just picked up from jail… but it wasn’t Marcus.

“Oh good, you’re both here,” Ontari snapped, before slamming the door shut.

“Get the fuck out, Ontari,” Roan snapped, and Echo crossed over to Ontari, standing between her and Roan.

“Shumway? How did you two pull that off?” she snapped, looking primarily at Roan.

“He murdered Thelonious Jaha. He’s been arrested,” Roan snapped, stepping a little too close, and Echo pushed him backwards.

“Echo, move,” Ontari growled, and Echo shot her a warning look. “You two seemed to forget that I was here. I saw the body.”

“Your word against everyone else’s,” Echo reminded her.

“What makes you think it’s just my word?” Ontari sneered, and this time, Roan had to hold Echo back.

“What do you have?” Echo growled, as Roan pulled her arms back so that she couldn’t swat at Ontari.

Cockily, Ontari stepped closer to Echo with a smug grin on her face. “Enough to make sure that I’ve bought Roan’s compliance for a few decades,” she teased, and Echo looked back at Roan, pleading for him to let go. Then, Ontari started to walk toward the door.

“Ontari, it’s over. You have nothing,” Roan snapped as Echo wrangled herself out of his grasp.

“Then, I’ll just take my nothing over to the police right now,” Ontari sneered, and Echo sprinted to her, slamming the door shut before Ontari could get out.

“She’s bluffing,” Roan growled.

“Give me your phone,” Echo snapped, glaring at Ontari. Her lips curled upwards, and Echo knew she wasn’t bluffing.

“Ontari,” Roan snapped, stepping toward them. If Ontari really did show up and see the body, she would need proof of what she saw… she had photos that would place the body in this house. Echo looked up at Roan, and he seemed to realize the same thing she did. It didn’t matter what friends Clarke’s family had that helped make all of it go away, if Ontari did what they think she’s about to do, all of them would go down for this.

Ontari darted around Roan, clearly trying to make it to the back door. But Roan was faster, got a grip on her and pushed her up against a wall before she even made it to the kitchen. He kept her pinned, as Echo reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone.

“1302,” Roan said, and Echo typed in the passcode. She swiped through the photos as Roan fought to keep Ontari in place.

“Roan,” Echo whispered weakly, holding up the phone so he could see. There they were, dozens of photos of Jaha’s dead body in the foyer, blood everywhere. All Ontari would have to do was negotiate an immunity deal, and they’d all go down. First, it would be Marcus, whose alibi would lead the police to look at the rest of them. Monty would crack, and probably Raven too. Bellamy Clarke would get dragged in, and Clarke would likely get killed by her family before they got her to speak. Roan and Echo, at best, were accessories after the fact, but would likely get tossed in with the rest of them. “We can’t let her go, Roan. We don’t know where else she’s saved back-ups.”

“What are you suggesting?” Roan huffed, and Echo helped him hold Ontari down.

 

_Raven_

 

“I’m just saying, you’re a little overqualified to be taking on a dumb DUI case,” Murphy mumbled, and Kane snorted. Raven didn’t add in, but she agreed, of course. To be honest, she was just relieved they were all in a place where they could joke around about their clients again. Ever since the police directed the investigation towards that Shumway guy, everything relaxed amongst her and the other interns.

Bellamy and Clarke were more quiet than usual, but at least they weren’t fighting anymore.

“Well, this is how you build a client base,” Kane huffed, as they all walked back up to the house.

“A dumb client base,” Monty mumbled, and Raven burst out laughing. Kane turned around to give them a glare that said he totally heard him, but it didn’t have the bite it usually did. Even Kane was calmer now.

When Kane opened the door, the first thing Raven heard was a muffled scream. Kane extended his arm, blocking any of them from running in before him, and he cautiously stepped in. Murphy rushed in next, pushing Kane out of the way so they could all quickly follow.

“What is going on?” Kane shouted, and Raven stepped out from behind Murphy, seeing Echo and Roan tying that Ontari woman to a chair. She heard the door close behind her, and she glanced back, seeing Bellamy and Clarke exchanging a concerned look.

“She has photos of Jaha’s body in this house on her phone. She was going to go to the police,” Echo explained, but no one moved any closer to them. She felt something grip her arm, and she glanced over to see Monty gripping onto her tightly.

“Why didn’t you just take her damn phone?” Murphy huffed, and Raven reached back to give Monty a reassuring hug.

“She’s blackmailing me with it. Do you really think she wouldn’t have copies?” Roan snapped.

“Everyone, sit in the living room,” Kane ordered, before marching over toward them. Raven nudged Monty hesitantly toward the couch.

“We should just run,” Monty whispered, but Raven shook her head.

“What Ontari has will get all of us. We need to stay,” she decided. She glanced over at Clarke and Bellamy, who seemed to be having the same exact discussion. It wasn’t like they could tell the police that Roan and Echo were essentially holding Ontari hostage without Echo and Roan immediately telling the police what they did. It was a stalemate.

“Okay, Ontari, I’m going to take the duct tape off your mouth. Don’t scream,” Kane warned, and Murphy sat down on the other side of Raven, and gripped her other hand.

“She’s going to scream,” Echo huffed, and Kane shot her a dirty look. Then, as he took the tape off, Ontari started screaming, before Kane put the tape back over her mouth.

“Which one of you had this idiotic idea?” Kane growled, stepping away from Ontari.

“We couldn’t just let her go to the police,” Roan huffed.

“So, what’s the plan? Keep her here forever?” Murphy mumbled, before Raven elbowed him in the side.

“We’re open to suggestions,” Roan said through gritted teeth.

“We have to let her go,” Raven snapped. “We figure out where all she put copies of the photos, get rid of them, and then let her go. It’ll be her word against ours.” Roan’s lips twitched at that, before he looked back at Echo with a skeptical look on her face.

Raven glanced over at Bellamy and Clarke, noticing that Clarke had a similar look on her face.

“I mean, what’s the alternative?” Monty asked, and Raven clenched her jaw as soon as she saw Kane’s dark expression. They couldn’t do that. Not again.

 

_Murphy_

 

It had been about an hour. Echo was in contact with everyone she could think of, trying to locate where thee copies were. Roan, Bellamy, and Clarke were arguing in the kitchen, leaving Murphy stuck with Kane, Raven, Monty, and, of course, their favorite hostage.

“No, Clarke didn’t do what she did just so we could all get sucked back into this again!” he heard Bellamy yell, noticing how Kane flinched at that.

“They weren’t thinking clearly when they tied her up,” Kane mumbled, as if it were some kind of apology.

“Really? So, this isn’t a normal weekday for you guys?” Raven snapped, and Murphy shot her a warning look.

“Raven,” Murphy whispered.

“No, what the fuck is this Kane?” Raven snapped, standing up. “Is this normal for you guys? What kind of people’s natural reaction is to tie someone up?” she growled, and now Kane was standing up.

“The same kind of people who knock a man over a railing when he threatened one of you,” Kane spat back.

“That was Clarke,” Monty jumped in, and Murphy threw his head back in a groan.

“And Ontari wasn’t trying to kill anyone,” Raven snapped.

“No, but if they hadn’t tied her up, she’d be at the police station right now. And do you think you could have gotten out of this if she did?” Kane replied, and Monty and Raven exchanged a look. “Good, now sit down,” Kane ordered, before storming toward the kitchen. But he froze in place as soon as there was a knock on the door.

The others all rushed back into the room with panicked looks on their faces.

“Basement,” was all Clarke murmured, and without thinking, Murphy jumped up to help carry Ontari. Roan and Bellamy joined in, as they lifted the chair Ontari was tied to and started carrying it toward the basement door.

“Marcus Kane, you open this goddamn door right now!” a woman yelled, as she pounded on the door loudly.

“What is she doing here?” Clarke asked, eyes wide.

“You tell me,” Kane snapped back, and Murphy shot a confused look at Roan, who just let out a huff. Once the basement door was shut behind them, he heard Kane open the door. Roan stumbled slightly on the steps, but caught himself in time.

“I could kill you for this,” the woman yelled, stomping into the house.

“Who is that?” Murphy whispered.

“Abby Griffin,” Roan mumbled, as they set the chair down at the bottom of the steps.

“Let’s talk in my office,” Kane said sternly.

“Clarke, there you are!” Abby shouted, and Murphy noticed Bellamy tense up.

Once they heard some doors shut, the three of them made their way back up the stairs. He glanced over his shoulder at Ontari, confirming that she was still there, before turning back around and leaving the basement.

Echo met them at the top of the stairs, gesturing for them to stay quiet. He could hear the echoes of Kane and Abby fighting in his office, and noticed a nervous expression on Clarke’s face. Bellamy pushed Murphy out of the way before making his way toward her, wrapping his arms around her quickly.

Clarke buried her face into Bellamy’s chest, and Murphy forced himself to look away. It was an intimate moment, and none of his damn business.

“We just need to act calm until she leaves,” Echo whispered, before heading back into the kitchen.

“How calm can we be when we literally have a hostage in the house?” Monty said through gritted teeth. Roan got a phone call, and excused himself to answer it. Then, he felt Raven drag him toward the stairs in a huff.

“What are you doing?” Murphy mumbled.

“What are we doing?” Raven asked with wide eyes.

“What?”

“Clarke and Bellamy aren’t thinking straight. So, what do you think we should be doing?” Raven asked, and Murphy bit his lip.

“Clarke’s just rattled because that’s her mom. We’ll get her smart brain back once she calms down,” Murphy mumbled.

“Come on.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” Murphy whispered, before looking over his shoulder. No one was paying attention to them. “There was a witness to what happened that night. In most crime movies, this is where the bad guys decide to kill the witness, and right now, we’re the bad guys, Raven.”

“Is that what you want to do?” Raven asked in an accusatory voice.

“Of course not,” Murphy spat, before forcing himself to take a deep breath. “What I want is to go home to my girlfriend and live in a world where I didn’t help murder a man.”

“I think it’s gonna come down to a vote,” Raven whispered, and Murphy cocked his head. “Monty is gonna say we let her go, and so will Kane. Echo and Roan will vote to get rid of her.”

“Bellamy and Clarke will vote the same way as each other, but I don’t know what that is,” Murphy sighed, glancing over his shoulder, noticing that neither of them were in the living room anymore.

“Which is why we need to decide what we want to do. They’re both rattled enough that we can convince them, and get the vote to swing our way,” Raven whispered, and Murphy realized she was right. When people are panicked, they look for anyone who is staying calm to tell them what to do. It’s how Murphy and Bellamy got Raven and Monty on board the murder train last time. It would work again.

“So, what do you want to do? We let Ontari go, and all of us likely go to jail. We kill her, and we’re all murderers again,” Murphy said, and Raven furrowed her brows, thinking this over. But it wasn’t like there were any good choices here.

 

_Clarke_

 

“Tell me it isn’t true,” her mom pleaded with her, and Clarke swallowed. She knew that it was only a matter of time before her mom found out what she did, what she said.

“It’s all true,” Clarke whispered, feeling sick to her stomach at the way her mother was looking at her… like she was a monster.

“You killed him?” she asked, stepping back and shaking her head frantically.

“He killed Dad,” Clarke said, tears pouring down her face. She glanced at the door, worried about who likely had their ear to the door. Not Kane, of course. He already knew what Clarke was saying.

“You should have come to me. I could have helped. You shouldn’t have let Marcus talk you into this,” she snapped, and Clarke wanted to scream at her. It wasn’t like Clarke was sure if she could even trust her mother with this. It wasn’t like she stood up for Clarke when everything hit the fan last year. It wasn’t like she even tried to stop Lexa from being killed.

“Well, it’s over. And you got what you wanted. I’m back now, for good,” Clarke huffed, throwing her hands up.

“You think this is what I wanted for you? The best thing that ever happened to you was getting out,” she snapped, and Clarke’s jaw clenched.

“Best thing that ever happened to me?” Clarke growled, and her mother’s face turned apologetic immediately. “Do you even remember what that cost me?”

“Clarke, I didn’t mean that,” she backtracked, and Clarke sucked in a breath. She had bigger things to worry about than her spat with her mother, like the hostage situation currently taking place just a floor below her in the basement.

“I don’t know why you came all this way to yell at me and Kane,” Clarke changed the subject, keeping her eyes fixed on the floor. “It’s done, and there’s nothing any of us can do about it now.”

She could feel her mother’s eyes on her, looking at horror at her daughter the murderer. It made her sick. Clarke knew it. After all, her mother had done a lot of horrible things for the family, but she hadn’t done that.

They stood there in silence for a few minutes, and Clarke focused on her own breathing, and not on the fact that she could be going to jail if Ontari got out or that her mother thinks she’s a monster now.

“Maybe it won’t be that bad,” her mom finally offered, and Clarke glanced up at her. “You’ll probably get pushed into having a political career like your dad was, maybe put some accounts in your name.”

“Eventually get married off to Cage,” Clarke jumped in, and her mother pressed her lips together.

“Not necessarily. Dad wants to see if Cage actually amounts to anything first. Dante is getting old which means the connection to the DA’s office isn’t really a long-term enough advantage,” she offered, as if that would make Clarke feel better.

“Look, I’ll come over this weekend and we can talk about this more. But we have a new client, and we need to get to work,” Clarke huffed, desperate for her mother to just leave so they can all deal with Ontari once and for all.

When she opened Kane’s office door, her mother called for Kane to come back. He looked flustered as he brushed past Clarke, and Clarke did not envy him. Her mother had been staring at him with what could only be described as a murderous glare.

Bellamy was waiting for her, and gestured for her to follow him. Raven and Murphy were sitting on the couch of the living room, but she didn’t see Monty anywhere.

“What happened?” Bellamy finally whispered once they were on the other side of the stairs, far from earshot.

“She just wanted to yell at me about Jaha,” Clarke muttered, and Bellamy’s eyes widened. “My grandpa told her what I told him. Don’t worry. She doesn’t know anything about you.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about, Clarke,” Bellamy said seriously, his eyes boring into hers. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Clarke whispered, smiling a bit at how concerned he was about her. “I’m okay, I promise.”

He brushed a few stray hairs out of her face, pushing them behind her ear. She knew he wasn’t happy about the decision they made, that he’d probably never be… but there wasn’t another option. It was the only choice.

His lips rested on her temple, and Clarke closed her eyes. Bellamy smelled so good, and felt so warm as he wrapped his arms around her. For a moment, Clarke forgot what kind of hell they were all in tonight.

“What are we going to do about Ontari?” Bellamy murmured, and Clarke forced herself to look back up at him.

“We wait and see what Echo can find. If there is no evidence of what she saw, then it’s her word against everyone else’s,” Clarke sighed, and Bellamy nodded along. “We’re gonna be okay. We’re almost in the clear.”

His jaw clenched, and Clarke had a feeling about what he was holding back. She stepped up on the top of her toes, and pressed a quick kiss to his lips, trying to distract him from the scowl that was forming on his face.

“Stay with me,” Clarke whispered, trying to get him out of his head. He smiled softly, and Clarke felt her entire chest warm up at the sight. This time, she pressed a much slower kiss to his lips, trying to reassure him that she was still there. Although, she couldn’t promise anymore that she would always be there… and they both knew that.

“Bellamy!” she heard Kane shout, and Bellamy jumped away from her, before walking back over to his office. Clarke followed after him, realizing that her mother must have left while she was with Bellamy.

Kane gestured for Bellamy to come into his office, before shutting the door behind them. She sucked in a breath, glancing around the room. Murphy was on the phone with Emori, not telling her anything specific about what was going on. She couldn’t figure out where Monty and Raven went, though. They were all supposed to stay in the house until this was resolved.

Clarke moved toward the basement, figuring that’s where everyone would go once the coast was clear. There was muffled talking that immediately stopped once the steps creaked.  She started walking down the steps even quicker, seeing Roan and Echo looking at her in panic.

“What’s going on?” Clarke asked as she got to the bottom of the steps. Then, she glanced over at Ontari, and nearly collapsed at the sight. Roan had her in his grasp before she hit the ground, and Clarke started hyperventilating.

“Breathe, Clarke,” Echo said quickly, rushing over to her and holding her hand. Clarke forced herself to look back at Ontari’s body, seeing where her throat had been slit. There wasn’t that much blood, but it was enough to make Clarke feel sick to her stomach.

“What did you do?” Clarke asked, looking at the two of them once she was standing up securely again.

“Clarke, we thought it was you,” Echo said, and Clarke’s panicked eyes found Roan’s.

“We found her like this, Clarke,” Roan said shakily, and Clarke’s gaze flickered up to the top of the stairs. She started to move, but Roan grabbed her before she could reach the steps. “Think this through,” he whispered.

“If all of us are telling the truth, that means at least one of the other five people in this house killed her. Do you really want to go confront someone that just killed Ontari?” Echo asked calmly, and Clarke pushed her hair back with her shaky hands, thinking this over. She couldn’t believe this was happening again. There was another dead body in the same damn house. _Someone_ killed her while everyone was distracted.

“We need to get this body out of here, tonight,” Roan said.

“No, we aren’t moving the body. We didn’t kill her,” Clarke snapped, and Roan glanced down at the ground.

“Clarke, please,” he whispered.

“No, we can’t. I’m not doing this again,” Clarke snapped.

“Who is the first person the police will look at if her body is found?” Echo asked, and Clarke’s stomach dropped. _Roan_. “Now, you and your friends didn’t do a good enough job taking care of the body, so I’m not trusting whoever the murderer is to properly dispose of the body.”

“What are you saying?” Clarke asked, and she was overwhelmed by how badly she wished Bellamy were down here. He would keep a clear head, be able to see if this was the wrong decision or not.

“We get rid of the body,” Roan said, and Clarke rested her back against the basement wall, forcing herself to take deep breaths. She wasn’t ready to do all of this again. She couldn’t.

“Hey, you don’t have to help us with the body. Just go along with our plan, and don’t say a word,” Echo said calmly, walking up to Clarke.

“You mean, lie to all of them?” Clarke asked, but she really meant Bellamy. She had already lied to every other person in this house without batting an eye. But Bellamy was a different story. She didn’t know how much longer she had with him, but she didn’t want to ruin a moment of it by lying to him.

“You can do this,” Roan said, reaching out his hand for Clarke to grab onto. She bit her lip, shaking her head as the tears poured down her face.

“Clarke, help us, and we’ll help you,” Echo said, and Clarke’s head jerked up in her direction.

“You can’t help me,” Clarke sobbed, and Roan and Echo exchanged a look, before Roan nodded.

“Just pretend you didn’t come down here, and I’ll help you,” Echo repeated. But there was nothing Echo could do for Clarke. She just sold off whatever future she wanted to get out of a murder charge. And after that, it was all happening again. “You want out of your family again, right? I can get you out.”

“No, you can’t,” Clarke argued. She sounded just like Bellamy, saying that there had to be another way out of it.

“Yes, I can. I got out of mine,” Echo said, and Clarke’s eyes widened, and her jaw dropped. “Get yourself together, lie to all of them, and I’ll get you out of this. I promise.”

 

**The Previous Summer**

 

_Wells_

 

He was knocking furiously on Emori’s door. He needed somewhere to cool off, to get his head back together.

Wells put his phone on silent, tired of the damn phone calls he had been getting ever since his fight with his dad about him going to see Wallace.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Emori asked as soon as she opened the door, and Wells brushed past her. He knew she needed to go to work soon, that he was being an inconsiderate ass for showing up here when he knew she had places to be… but he didn’t have anyone else. It’s not like he could go to Clarke with this. It’s not like she would even open the door after the last phone call they had.

“I just, I don’t know anymore,” Wells huffed, throwing his head back. When he looked back down at his phone, his dad was calling again. He tossed his phone onto Emori’s bed, before resting his back against her bookcase. “I just try to do the right thing, and it never fucking works. People who do the wrong thing are just always a step ahead of me,” he groaned, and Emori bit her lip.

He didn’t want to tell her that his plan to meet with the DA backfired, that Wallace was giving him a bunch of bureaucratic bullshit instead of answers. He probably got threatened by his dad and was scared to do a damn thing about Jake Griffin’s murder. Wells wondered if there was even an honest person left in this awful city.

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m sure it’ll all work out,” Emori said hesitantly, and Wells nodded along. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that things didn’t just work out. That the only way for Wells to win the game is to play the game, and he didn’t have the stomach for it.

“I’m sorry for just barging in here. I know you have work,” he sighed. She didn’t deserve to have him pile all his shit onto her. She was his only friend, after all. And she had been a pretty great friend to him, all things considered. He needed to be more considerate of her time.

“I can be late,” she offered, but Wells was already making his way toward the door.

“No, it’s fine,” he replied with a forced grin, and Emori nodded sadly. “Look, I’ll stop by tomorrow, okay? We’ll finish watching that dumb series you keep making me watch,” he teased, and Emori threw her pillow at him with a scrunched-up face. He shot her a warning look, before walking out her door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know you guys HAVE to have theories about this one. Come scream at me. I know you want to.


	15. Snapped

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to wait a while to put this one up, but I couldn't keep looking at this chapter. It's just... it's a lot. Like, it hurts real bad. It was really hard for me to write, tbh. I promise I have a plan, and everyone is going to be just fine... but this chapter is kind of serving as most of our favorite murder club members' breaking point. You also finally find out what happened to Wells, and it only took me fifteen chapters to get there lol.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, despite how emotional it's going to get.

_Roan_

 

He checked again, making sure no one could see Ontari’s body when they came in.

“We’re fine, let’s go,” Echo whispered, already half up the stairs. Roan closed his eyes, and forced himself to take a deep breath. This would work. Clarke calmed down enough to be convincing. Everything would be fine.

He followed Echo up the stairs, praying that she was right about how the kids would respond.

There was a nervous energy once they snuck into the living room, and everyone was too busy arguing to notice that Roan and Echo came in.

“We can’t just let her go. We’ve been over this,” Raven snapped at Monty, and Roan continued scanning the room. Everyone seemed normal, except for Clarke, of course. And by normal, he meant paranoid and on edge, but in the way that he’s gotten used to, not in the “I just killed someone within the last hour” kind of way.

Roan settled into the corner, sitting right next to Echo. He could see she was scanning the room too, trying to figure out who did it. If Roan hadn’t walked down there with Echo and seen her reaction for himself, he’d be convinced she did it. He didn’t think anyone else in this room was capable of murder. Clarke, technically, but he knew she didn’t do this either. That just left five other suspects.

When Echo grabbed his hand, Roan realized his hand had been shaking. He swallowed, trying to get his head on straight again. Seeing dead bodies wasn’t new to Roan. He shouldn’t be this rattled. But he almost always knew who the murderer was. And it didn’t help that he knew the dead person this time. Sure, he hated Ontari, but he hadn’t always hated her.

He noticed that Murphy was using his phone more than usual, texting furiously. He glanced over at Echo, seeing that she noticed it too. Then, there was Monty, who was fidgeting his feet nervously. Roan couldn’t tell if that was just normal anxiety, or post-murder anxiety.

“Echo, have you gotten anywhere with finding Ontari’s copies of the photos?” Bellamy asked, looking like the calmest of the bunch. Maybe a little too calm. Roan studied him closer. Bellamy would be a good potential suspect, actually. He was instrumental in helping Clarke get away with killing Jaha, clearly willing to do whatever it took to protect Clarke. Murdering Ontari to make sure that Clarke didn’t go to jail wasn’t too much of a reach.

“Still waiting to hear back,” Echo answered, and Raven let out a huff.

“Hey, Clarke, can I talk to you for a minute?” Roan asked, standing up, and Clarke was all too eager to step out of that living room.

Once they were in the kitchen, Clarke’s face faltered.

“Which one of them do you think did it?” he asked, and Clarke’s eyes widened.

“Are you sure Echo didn’t do it?” Clarke whispered.

“Yes,” he snapped, and Clarke flinched slightly. He immediately felt bad about his harsh tone. “Just trust me. I know Echo. Even if I hadn’t seen her reaction, I know she didn’t do it. She wouldn’t have left the body like that.”

“No smart person would have left the body like that,” Clarke argued, and Roan clenched his jaw. She had a point. Whoever it was got sloppy, which didn’t sound like anyone in this house… unless they were rushed.

“Where are you going?” he heard Marcus snap from the other room, and Roan immediately flinched. Clarke tugged on his arm as they made their way back into the living room.

“Raven, get back here,” Murphy muttered, following after her. Roan glanced up at Echo, who gestured for him to stay still. He swallowed, realizing that this needed to play out. They needed to see how all of them reacted, which meant that someone needed to discover that Ontari was “missing.”

Roan flinched as soon as he heard Raven’s shrill scream, and saw Bellamy and Monty join Murphy in running after her.

But there was one person who didn’t react the same way…

“Marcus,” Echo said, her eyes narrowed at him.

“Come on,” Marcus said in a huff, clearly getting himself back together, before leading them toward the basement. Roan’s eyes met Echo’s, and she made the same connection he did.

As they all rushed into the basement to find an empty chair and the rope they had tied Ontari with, Roan played the events of the night over again in his head. Ontari was still alive when he took her down to the basement with Bellamy and Murphy. That was the last time he saw her alive. But Abby Griffin made one hell of a distraction, which means no one noticed anyone go down to the basement to kill Ontari. Marcus was in his office with Abby for a while, and for the most part, Roan could account for each of the kids during the whole ordeal. There were times when Monty, Raven, and Murphy had disappeared, but looking at their faces now… Roan knew they couldn’t have done it.

Monty had fallen to the floor, hyperventilating. Raven was in hysterics, clinging onto Clarke like her life depended on it. Murphy and Bellamy were trying to comfort Monty, but it was clear they were barely staying together. Because all of them thought this meant that Ontari escaped, that they were all going to prison. But when he looked at Marcus… he was trying too hard to seem distraught. It wasn’t real. Roan had seen Marcus at his worst. This wasn’t it. Instead, he looked like a man that’s trying to figure out where the body went.

Echo started explaining that they all needed to go out and look for Ontari, to track her down. Roan tuned out, turning his attention to Marcus who was avoiding making eye contact. There was a window of time that Roan didn’t know where Marcus was… while Clarke was in his office with her mother.

When Echo sent the hysterical kids out to go find Ontari, Marcus stayed behind. If that wasn’t confirmation enough, Roan didn’t know what would be. When the basement door slammed shut, Roan and Echo both stepped toward him.

“Why aren’t you helping the kids look for Ontari?” Echo asked, and Marcus clenched his jaw.

“You know why,” he growled, and Roan’s stomach turned. Echo stepped in front of Roan before he could get any closer to Marcus.

“What ever happened to there being a right and wrong way to handle our problems?” Echo spat, glaring up at Marcus defiantly. Marcus looked to Roan, clearly looking for some support, but Roan had none to offer him. Marcus came down here, slit Ontari’s throat, and rushed back upstairs before Abby came looking for him. The man who refused to even consider killing Thelonious when everything was falling apart just slit Ontari’s throat on a whim.

“I snapped,” Marcus replied, voice breaking slightly.

“We don’t have time for this. We need to get the body out of the house before any of the kids come back,” Roan growled, leaving out that Clarke already knew about Ontari’s body. That was a problem for another day.

“Maybe he’s at least good for helping us carry the damn body,” Echo muttered, as she started moving the boxes to reveal where they hid Ontari.

“Echo, please,” Marcus almost whispered, and Roan whipped his head around to glare at him. This wasn’t the time to show remorse, and neither of them could care less if Marcus felt guilty. He still killed her. Marcus Kane. The man who was supposed to trust Echo and Roan with everything, that should have talked to them before murdering someone. There was another way.

Then again, Roan shouldn’t be surprised at this point. Marcus lied to both of them when he helped Clarke and the others with Jaha’s murder. He let Echo feel like a monster for wanting to kill Jaha, and then immediately helped someone else get away with killing Jaha.

“Welcome to the murderer’s club. It’s hard to sleep at night, and you’re going to Hell. Now, come grab the feet,” Echo growled furiously. Marcus looked to Roan, almost pleading with him. But Roan brushed past him, to help Echo with the body. Marcus didn’t just kill someone. He killed Roan’s wife, and now every person on this earth would immediately think Roan was responsible. Marcus did that to him.

“Get moving. You have a lot of explaining to do,” Roan mumbled.

 

_Murphy_

 

He figured Monty and Raven were paying enough attention that Murphy could get away with checking his phone some more. Emori had been skittish ever since Murphy told her about what was happening with Ontari. He didn’t like how she had stopped texting after his last phone call.

“It’s over,” Monty mumbled, looking out the window for any sign of Ontari.

“We don’t know that,” Raven huffed, and Murphy forced himself to take a deep breath.

“She’s going to tell the police that we all kept her hostage, and then, everything else will come out,” Monty snapped, and Murphy realized they were all missing something. After all, Ontari would have escaped a while before any of them noticed her. It had been at least an hour since Murphy helped carry her down those steps, meaning she could have been missing for almost as long.

“Guys, if she was going straight to the police, do you really think that we wouldn’t have been dragged to the station by now?” Murphy asked, and he could see Monty’s entire body relax as he thought this over.

“You’re right,” Raven said, before pulling over. Then, she turned around to look at him with narrowed eyes. “We’d have cops pulling us over, showing up at Kane’s house… meaning she hasn’t gone to the police yet.”

“But why wouldn’t she? I mean, we literally had her tied up in a basement,” Monty asked, and Murphy leaned back in his seat.

“I know that Roan has some shady family background. Kind of like the mob,” Murphy sighed, and Raven’s eyes widened. “Emori might have gone through everyone’s stuff,” he explained with a shrug, and Raven rolled her eyes… but Murphy noticed the hint of a smirk too. “But maybe she couldn’t go to the police, or she’s shady too. Maybe Roan has something that could get her into trouble if she ever turned on him,” Murphy mused.

After a few minutes, Raven resumed her driving. They drove around for at least an hour, before Kane called for all of them to come back to the house. Bellamy and Clarke didn’t have any luck either. Apparently, Roan and Echo went out to look for Ontari while they were gone and still hadn’t gotten back.

Kane was drinking when they all walked into his office, his hand shaking slightly as he put his glass down to look up at them. “Look, just go home. Echo has her people searching everywhere for Ontari. But if she hasn’t gone to the police yet, odds are she isn’t going to. We’ll reconvene here tomorrow morning,” Kane slurred, and Murphy furrowed his brows at him. There was something off here.

But he wasn’t about to argue. He needed to get back and see what was going on with Emori. He rushed home, ignoring how the other four clustered outside the house to talk about what happened. If they were all going to jail, he wanted to at least spend his last moments of freedom at home with Emori.

When he opened his apartment door, she wasn’t there. He thought through her work schedule, but she wasn’t supposed to work tonight. He grabbed the spare key to her apartment, before walking down the hall. She probably wasn’t in there. After all, ever since they started dating, Emori basically lived in his apartment.

He turned on the light to her apartment… and something was very off. It was, well, clean. “Emori,” he called out, walking into her apartment. He was met with only silence, of course. He walked into her bedroom, seeing the drawers of her dresser all pulled out, almost empty. Then, there was a note on her bed, the words _I’m sorry_ written in her handwriting.

He clenched his eyes shut, cursing himself for spooking Emori with everything that was happening with Ontari. Of course, she ran. He’d do the same damn thing if he were her.

 

_Clarke_

 

On the drive back to Bellamy’s apartment, Clarke kept trying to open her mouth, to tell him what she knew. But no words ever came out. She kept listening to Bellamy trying to reassure her, telling her that Kane had never let them down before, that he would take care of them. And Clarke didn’t have the heart to tell him that it was Kane that killed Ontari. Of course, she didn’t know this for certain. But she saw Roan’s face, and recognized it. He and Echo both thought it was Kane, and they were both good at reading people.

She kept thinking back to how Echo was trying to talk her down, reminding Clarke that she had no way of predicting how Bellamy would react to the news that Ontari was dead. Clarke was confident that Bellamy would be able to handle that information… but if she told him that she thought Kane did it… she had no idea how he would react to that.

After all, Bellamy was close to Kane. Whatever happened the night Thelonious died bonded them in a way that Clarke couldn’t fully understand. Bellamy trusted Kane completely, believed that Kane would be the key to all of them getting out of this.

“Okay, Clarke, talk to me,” Bellamy sighed as soon as he shut the front door. She glanced up at him, seeing him giving her that concerned stare that made her knees weak.

“Bell, we’ve talked enough. We can’t solve anything tonight,” Clarke deflected.

“You’re too quiet. What’s going on in your head?” he asked, his hands now cupping Clarke’s face. She bit her lip, studying his concerned face. Here was Bellamy, probably panicked about as much as everyone else, but still finding a way to comfort Clarke first. She couldn’t remember a time in her life when someone was this tender with her. No, tender wasn’t the right word. Caring, yeah. But it still wasn’t right.

_Loving_ was the right word, she realized. Her entire face went warm, as one of Bellamy’s hands left her face, before he wrapped an arm around her. She rested her head on her chest, barely making out the reassuring whispers falling off his lips, right into her ear.

She clenched her eyes shut, and focused on the soft smell of his detergent from his shirt. This was exactly where she wanted to be at this moment. Nowhere else could make her feel safer or happier. This… this was it.

As that realization washed over Clarke, she found herself pressing a hard kiss to Bellamy’s lips. His arms tightened around her, and his lips parted in a gasp. Her hands were in his hair, tugging him as close to her as she could manage… but it wasn’t close enough. She needed more.

“Bell, I need you,” she whispered, before crashing her lips back into his. He lifted her up where they stood, and Clarke wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms tightly around his neck. He walked them back until Clarke’s back was against a wall. His chest pressed against hers as he moaned into her mouth. His moans vibrated in her mouth, and it just felt so unmistakably _right_.

It didn’t take long before he was carrying her back into his room, throwing her down onto the bed, only to climb on top of her with so much want in his eyes that Clarke wasn’t sure she could wait a second longer.

“What do you need, princess?” he growled into her ear, as he unbuttoned her pants. “Need my fingers? My mouth? Tell me baby, and I’ll give it to you,” he whispered, his lips ghosting her ear as he spoke.

“I think you know what I really need, Bell,” Clarke whispered huskily, loving the way his jaw twitched at those words. His hand slid up to her face, his thumb grazing her jawline as he studied her face.

“Say it, Clarke,” he ordered, and Clarke bit her lip. She pushed him onto his back, before resting her hand right over his cock, feeling his erection through the fabric of his jeans.

She glanced up at him as innocently as she could, loving the possessive way he was gazing at her now. “I need your cock,” she pleaded, feeling his cock twitch at those words. A growl escaped his lips as he pulled her on top of him. He sat up, as he started tugging off Clarke’s shirt.

“God, I love your tits, princess,” he growled, as his lips trailed her bare skin. “So sexy, baby,” he continued, his eyes looking right at Clarke as he fumbled with unhooking her bra. “You like it when I tell you how sexy you are, don’t you?” he smirked, and Clarke started nodding. She loved how he talked to her while he fucked her, how he told her how much he thinks about her, how badly he said he wanted her.

He tossed her bra to the side quickly, not hesitating to start kissing and biting his way across her chest. Her fingers gripped his hair as she threw her head back, her moans echoed through the room. She was so distracted by his hot breath on her skin, that she didn’t see it coming when Bellamy flipped her onto her back.

He practically tore his shirt off, before he started tugging down her pants. She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to catch up on her breathing… but she couldn’t. Not when Bellamy was looking at her like that while tearing her clothes off her. And she knew she was looking at him in a similar way. It was hard not to, especially as he tugged his own pants off. Her eyes drifted over his muscled torso, all the way down to the growing bulge in his boxers.

“See something you like?” he teased with that smirk of his… that smirk that Clarke had wanted to smack off him for so long.

“Yeah, Bell. I do,” she said, her hand sliding down her stomach. His eyes drifted to watching her hand slide into her panties, and he bit his lip. A whimper escaped Clarke’s lips as her finger started rubbing her clit, and before she knew it, Bellamy was climbing back on top of her, crashing his lips into hers.

“Want me to help you with that?” he growled, his hand now on top of hers.

“I want you to fuck me,” Clarke replied with a smirk, and Bellamy nearly fell over trying to reach into his drawer for a condom. Her eyes didn’t leave him as she tugged off her panties, and she bit her lip as she watched him slide off his boxers. She whined impatiently as he got the condom on, earning a whole slew of curses from Bellamy.

“Such an impatient princess,” he teased, once he climbed back on top of her.

“Your impatient princess,” she reminded him, earning a growl as he crashed his lips onto hers. She missed his lips as soon as he pulled away.

Clarke’s eyes fluttered shut as soon as she felt Bellamy at her entrance. She bit her lip a little too hard once he was all the way inside of her, overwhelmed by how big and perfect he felt inside her.

“Fuck, Clarke,” Bellamy sighed, as he leaned back over her. “Just, fuck,” he said, as he buried his face into her neck.

“You feel so good, Bell,” Clarke said, turning her head so she was whispering right in his ear. He was still thrusting into her slowly, and Clarke needed more. “You always feel so good.”

“Keep talking like this, and this’ll be over too quickly,” he warned, as Clarke dug her nails into her back.

“Can’t help it,” Clarke teased, and Bellamy’s head popped up to look at her, his lips parted as his breathing continued to be labored. “Just need you so badly.”

His forehead rested on top of hers, and he picked up his pace. His eyes never left hers. She tried to run her fingers through his hair again, but he grabbed onto her wrist, before pinning it to the pillow beside her head. Her lips parted, and he leaned down to bite her bottom lip. And fuck, Clarke couldn’t last long either if he kept this up.

“You need more, don’t you, baby?” he asked, his voice soft. And Clarke nodded with a slight pout. His other hand drifted down her body, before his fingers found her clit. They tried to keep kissing as he slammed his hips into hers, but it was too messy. It was just the two of their labored breathing with an occasional open-mouthed kiss.

His other hand held hers tightly, not letting it move from the pillow. Her eyes fluttered shut again, knowing she only had moments before the pleasure would wash over her. It was too much, his loving gaze, feeling his lips against hers, feeling his breathing in her mouth, the terrible and filthy things he would whisper to her… she was gone.

As she came undone for him, his voice was the only thing she could pay attention to. The way he said she was so beautiful when she came for him. The loving way he called her his princess. The way his voice broke as he told her how good she felt around his cock. The loud grunt she had only heard a few times before when he erupted into her.

Bellamy stayed on top of her for a while after, his face buried into her neck as he panted against her skin. Her chest was rising and falling quickly beneath him. She glanced over to her left, seeing that Bellamy’s hand hadn’t left hers. He was still gripping it just as tightly, and her chest warmed at the sight. She squeezed his hand, feeling him weakly do the same.

She couldn’t take her eyes off the sight. She loved the way their hands looked together, how his strong hand nearly enveloped hers, but still was so tender and soft. When he finally pulled his hand from her clasp, Clarke immediately missed the sight. She loved the way he held her hand. She loved how it felt. She loved what it meant.

She thought about that as Bellamy finally pulled out of her, still a little breathless. He was murmuring something about wondering what had come over Clarke, teasing her about how she basically jumped him, but she was having a hard time paying attention. When he climbed back in bed, his lips rested on her forehead as he pulled her into his chest.

“What’s going on with you?” he whispered between kisses, and Clarke glanced up at him. His eyes were teasing, clearly not referring to the chaotic events of the night, but about Clarke’s sudden quietness. She opened her mouth to speak, but she couldn’t bring herself to say what she was thinking.

So, instead of confessing that she was falling in love with him, she replied, “Guess I just really wanted you.”

“Apparently,” he smirked.

 

_Monty_

 

“Is Emori not coming?” Monty whispered to Clarke, who just shot him a warning look. Luckily, Murphy was preoccupied with teasing Raven. Apparently, Luna decided it was time that she met all of Raven’s friends, which meant they all had to play along in the whole Raven being a recovering drug addict lie… and Murphy was just running with it.

“Bellamy asked him about her this morning, and he didn’t react well,” Clarke whispered back, and Monty bit his lip.

It had been two days since Ontari went missing, and they were all starting to calm down. After all, if she hadn’t gone to the police yet, that meant she probably wasn’t going to. Tonight was their first step towards acting normal again. Fake it ‘til you make it, or something like that, he figured.

Clarke checked her phone again, probably getting a little anxious that Bellamy wasn’t here yet.

“Honestly, I just can’t believe how strong Raven has been this whole time. I was personally very worried about her,” Murphy deadpanned, and Raven clenched her jaw. “She’s been my best friend since starting law school and I’m just happy you’re helping her get on the straight and narrow.”

“Anyway,” Clarke interrupted, which gave Raven an opportunity to catch her breath. “Luna, where did you go to school?”

If Luna answered, Monty didn’t hear it. He was distracted by his phone buzzing. It was another call from Harper. He swallowed, thinking over if he should excuse himself to go answer it or not. He had been avoiding talking to Harper since the Ontari incident, not knowing how to lie to her about what was going on this time.

And he knew that Harper was just worried about him, that she thought he was depressed and needed the extra support… which only made him feel guiltier. Honestly, Monty wasn’t sure how Raven had been keeping her lie up either. Maybe it was because Raven and Luna were newer to this whole relationship thing, maybe it was because this was far from the first big lie that Raven had told Luna… but this was uncharted territory for him and Harper. He used to tell her everything… but he couldn’t tell her this.

“Come on,” he heard Murphy say, and Monty snapped out of the trance he was in. “Let’s grab another round,” Murphy said, tugging on Monty’s arm. Monty followed after him, putting his hands in his pockets. “Okay, what’s going on?” Murphy groaned, and Monty furrowed his brows.

“Do you care?” Monty snapped, and Murphy’s jaw twitched.

“Fine, don’t tell me,” he muttered as he sat down at the bar. Monty huffed as he sat down beside him, and checked his phone… seeing another text from Harper. “It’ll get easier.”

“How would you know?” Monty asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Because this will one day be a distant memory. It’ll be easier to lie about something as more time passes,” Murphy replied, and Monty pressed his lips together. He really hoped Murphy was right.

 

_Marcus_

 

He was already drunk when he heard the front door open. He stumbled to get up, cursing himself for being alone in the house. If someone was about to murder him, he’d be a damn sitting duck.

“Sorry, Professor Kane,” he heard Bellamy say, and he let out a sigh of relief. “Left my laptop charger here,” he explained, crossing into the living room. Then, Bellamy stopped, looking at Marcus with concern. “Is everything okay?”

“Just a little drunk,” Marcus replied, purposefully leaving out the massive list of reasons why he decided to get drunk on a weeknight.

“Are you sure there isn’t anything wrong?” Bellamy followed up, and Marcus threw his head back. There was a lot wrong. The love of his life now hates him for talking Clarke into going back to the family, told him she would never forgive him if anything ever happened to Clarke, verbally broke him down in a way he had never been before.

Then there was the fact that he literally slit Ontari’s throat… not even blinking as he did it. All he knew was that Echo wasn’t finding anything, and a decision had to be made. Things would have gotten ugly if it turned into a vote, someone could have gotten hurt. And in that moment, killing Ontari felt like the only option.

And then… there was how Roan and Echo looked at him now. How furious Roan was with him, how Marcus put Roan in serious danger just because he wasn’t thinking correctly. How Echo looked at him differently, how he felt like a monster whenever Echo glanced at him.

“Professor Kane, what’s wrong?” Bellamy asked more urgently, and Marcus blinked a few times.

“Just going through some stuff,” he mumbled, before rubbing his eyes.

“Gonna need you to be a little more specific,” Bellamy said, before handing him a glass of water. Marcus took a sip, trying to figure out what answer could placate Bellamy. It wasn’t like Marcus could just tell the boy that he murdered Ontari. It was better if none of the kids knew that Ontari wasn’t alive. He could talk to him about his fight with Abby… after all, if anyone were to understand the impossible position Marcus was in, it would be Bellamy. “What?” Bellamy asked, and Marcus realized he must have said that last part out loud. Maybe he was drunker than he thought. “Why would I understand?”

“Well, you’re in love with Clarke Griffin, after all. You gotta know how fucked you are,” Marcus mumbled, but Bellamy looked completely confused. “Okay, story time,” Marcus slurred, forcing himself to sit up. “In law school, I fell in love with this girl named Abby. She loved me too. It was great,” Marcus sighed, but Bellamy was looking at him like he wasn’t making any sense. Marcus leaned over to him, putting his hand on his shoulder. Bellamy needed to hear this story, he decided. After all, if he wasn’t careful, it would become his story too.

“Are you talking about Clarke’s mom?” Bellamy asked, and Marcus nodded heavily.

“The problem? Her family was making her marry Jake Griffin. Turns out, our whole relationship was doomed. Didn’t stand a chance. Abby didn’t want to be cut off, so she went through with it, and I lost her forever,” Marcus sighed, resting his head back on the couch. He could see Abby’s face the day she told him so clearly, as if it were just moments ago.

“Professor Kane,” Bellamy said sternly.

“At least when Clarke does it to you, it’ll be because she was trying to protect you, not because she wanted the money,” Marcus mumbled. In a way, Bellamy was kind of lucky. At least he knew how important he was to Clarke. But Marcus got tossed aside like it was nothing.

“You aren’t making any sense,” Bellamy sighed.

“It’ll make sense. One day, you’ll wake up to the news that her family is going forward on marrying her off to that Cage Wallace guy, and you’ll hate everything,” Marcus slurred, sitting back up so he could look at Bellamy’s confused face. “You’re both gonna lie to each other, saying that there has to be a way out of it. You’ll get a false sense of hope, thinking that you’ll have her forever. But you never had her. Never. She’ll get married to someone else, have a few kids, maybe have a political career, who knows? And you’ll just have to watch it all happen.”

He watched Bellamy think those words over, and Marcus prayed he was making sense. It was so clear in his head, what he was trying to warn Bellamy about. But Bellamy needed to _know_ what he was in for, what unique kind of hell it is to be the one who gets left behind.

If Bellamy wasn’t careful, he’d end up just like Marcus… all alone in a house like this. His only meaningful relationships being from his work… and even then, those were fragile. After all, where were Echo and Roan? They were gone, hardly able to even look at Marcus anymore.

He clenched his eyes shut, thinking that whole night over… the way Echo called him a hypocrite, the way Roan said they were done with him… and how Marcus kept saying over and over that he just _snapped_.

It was a long time coming. Everything with Thelonious, Wells going missing, then turning up dead… Finding out one of his closest friends was a murderer, that Thelonious killed Jake… who Marcus had tried so hard to hate for what he got, but couldn’t because at the end of the day, Jake was his _friend_.

Then, he found Bellamy, so scared in that house, standing over Thelonious’ body. And Marcus hadn’t gotten a good night of sleep since. There were too many things that were going wrong. The trophy was broken, the kids were nervous, Echo and Roan thought it was Clarke, Ontari showed up at the house that night, the police found the body, Abby’s testimony nearly got Marcus busted, and then, they had to resort to the worst possible solution: sacrificing Clarke.

Everything was going to be okay after then, he thought. Clarke was saving all of them. It was done. They were supposed to all be safe. Marcus was supposed to keep them all safe.

Then, Ontari just couldn’t let Roan go, couldn’t let this whole thing go. And Marcus just _snapped_ because he was so close to getting everyone safe. It was his job. It was what he promised every single one of them… that he would keep them safe. And so that’s what he did.

He didn’t realize he was sobbing until he felt Bellamy’s hands on his shoulders. “Let’s get you up to bed,” Bellamy whispered, and Marcus clenched his eyes shut again. How had he fallen this far?

 

_Raven_

 

“I think your friends love me,” Luna teased, her mouth a little too close to Raven’s ear. Luna’s arm was around Raven’s shoulder, trying to stabilize herself as Raven walked her up to her apartment. It was no secret that Luna drank _a lot_ tonight. She had been nervous about meeting all of Raven’s friends, which was… adorable.

“Yeah, they like you a lot. Think you’re the best thing to ever happen to me,” Raven replied, pulling out Luna’s key to unlock the door.

“Aww, did they say that?” Luna asked, giggling, and Raven had to bite her lip to hide her smile. “You know, I really like Clarke. She’s funny. Wait, where was her boyfriend?”

“Apparently had to see Kane,” Raven huffed as she opened the door. She thought Bellamy had just left something at the house, but he was gone just a little too long. She had to force that concern out of her head, though. Ontari hadn’t gone to the police, meaning that they were safe for now. She had to just learn to enjoy these moments.

“Okay,” Luna started with a hiccup as she stumbled toward the kitchen. “I think Clarke is my favorite, then Monty. Murphy is weird, though.”

Raven snorted at that, following after Luna who was digging through the pantry already. She pulled out a pop tart, and didn’t hesitate to shove it ungracefully into her mouth.

“I’m sorry. I meant to say that you’re my favorite, which makes Clarke my second favorite,” Luna slurred, her mouth full of pop tart.

“Okay, let’s get you to bed,” Raven suggested with a huge grin on her face. She had never seen Luna drunk before tonight, but it was amazing. She was so adorable and sweet… and Raven thought she could melt.

Luna let out a huff, as she put the rest of the pop tart on the counter, before sulking toward the bedroom. Raven had to herd her toward the bed, since Luna kept trying to pick out a movie to watch.

“So bossy,” Luna teased, before flopping into bed. Once Raven changed, she followed after her. Luna immediately squirmed towards Raven, burying her face into Raven’s neck. “God, you smell so good,” she mumbled, and Raven wrapped an arm around her.

“Pretty sure it’s just your soap,” Raven teased, but Luna didn’t have a response. She just pulled herself closer. Raven closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Sure, everything could all go to hell tomorrow… but right now, she was okay. Luna was with her, and was perfect… and they were all okay. “Did you love all my friends?” Raven asked, and Luna nodded with a sigh.

“Yeah, but not as much as I love you,” Luna mumbled, and Raven swore her heart stopped beating.

 

_Bellamy_

 

He walked up to Clarke’s door for the fourth time that night, telling himself that this would be the time he would actually open it. He knew Clarke had gotten home from the bar, that she was waiting for him… but he just couldn’t bring himself to open the damn door. Because once he opened the door, everything would be different… and he hated that. He hated it so much.

At the moment, he also hated Professor Kane for being so fucking right. The whole situation with Clarke’s family had been rattling around in the back of his head for too long, the tiny voice repeatedly telling him that none of this could be permanent.

He could see it all so clearly. He was going to fall hopelessly in love with Clarke, if he wasn’t already. They would keep saying that they would find a way out of the inevitable, but never would… because, as Clarke has said time and time again, no one gets out of this. They’d cling onto each other until the last miserable second, and then he’d spend the rest of his life missing her.

He wasn’t convinced that ripping this band-aid now would prevent that, of course… but at least there might be a chance. Maybe.

He took a breath, before opening the door.

“Bell!” he heard Clarke say excitedly, and his stomach dropped.

“Hey, Clarke,” he sighed, and Clarke ran up to greet him, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“What’s wrong?” Clarke asked, her brows furrowed up at him. He looked down at the ground, not sure he could keep looking into those eyes without going back on this.

“We need to talk,” he said, and it was like he could feel the oxygen being sucked out of the room. He forced himself to look up at Clarke, seeing the panic in her eyes. “I just, um,” he tried to start, but there was no series of words that could make the truth hurt any less than it already did.

“Bell, talk to me,” Clarke whispered, her hands finding his, and Bellamy couldn’t breathe. He tugged his hands out of her grasp, before resting them on top of his head. He paced into the living room, trying to get his breathing under control. “Hey, whatever it is, we’ll figure it out.”

“No, we won’t,” he snapped, turning around to look at Clarke. Her brows were still furrowed at him, but she didn’t step any closer to him. “This time, the problem isn’t a body needing to be disposed of or a witness gone missing, Clarke. There is no solution.”

“You’re not making any sense.”

“How much longer do we have, Clarke?” he asked, and she cocked her head in confusion. “You know, until you get forced into marrying that Cage guy or someone else who could do favors for your fucking mob of a family? How much longer do I get to have you?”

“Hey, don’t worry about that. We’ll figure out a way out of this,” Clarke said, crossing over to him, and Bellamy’s lips twitched at those words. That’s what they said about Clarke going back to her family in the first place, that they’d find a solution so it didn’t come to that. “I can get out of this.”

“Name one other person who has,” he snapped, and Clarke’s face faltered. He hated to have to put it in those terms, but he knew this was the one way he could get her to see this realistically. Clarke had told him horror story after horror story. They both knew what could happen to both of them if Clarke tried to pull something.

“It’s different,” Clarke finally said, and Bellamy threw his head back in frustration. “No, I was talking to Echo. I think she’s—”

“Clarke!” Bellamy yelled, immediately regretting the harsh tone of his voice… but he needed her to stop fighting him on this. “It’s inevitable,” he whispered, before looking up to meet her tearful eyes.

“Please, don’t say that,” Clarke pleaded, and now she was just inches away from him, looking up at him with those pleading eyes… and all Bellamy wanted to do was give in, to lie to himself, to say that maybe this could all work itself out. Anything to make the devastated look in Clarke’s eyes go away.

“I can’t just let this drag itself out. Can you?” he asked, wincing at the way Clarke’s lips were starting to quiver. “Clarke, we’re just going to spend every day dreading when this has to be over. Tell me I’m wrong.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he could see the realization wash through her face… the months of clinging to each other, knowing it could all be taken away at any moment… the dragged out break up… the way they would both linger in each other’s thoughts for way too long. Letting this go on any further was just asking for both of them to be miserable.

In time, maybe Clarke could move on, learn to care about whoever it was she got trapped with, find a way to have a happy life. Maybe Bellamy could move on, find a way to no longer ache for the entitled princess that crept up on him. Maybe they could both have a chance this way.

After standing in miserable silence for a few minutes, Bellamy started to move towards the door.

“Please, don’t go,” Clarke sobbed, and it took all the strength he had not to turn around and run back to her.

 

_Echo_

 

Roan was fidgeting too much while Echo was on the phone, clearly anxious about what was happening with Ontari’s body. By the time Echo got off the phone, she thought Roan was going to scream.

“It’s done, Roan. No one will ever find her,” Echo reassured, and he threw his head back. She could see the relief take over his body at the realization that he wasn’t going to go to jail for Marcus’ stupidity. More importantly, his family would never know what happened to Ontari, meaning Roan didn’t have to face those repercussions either.

“I don’t think I can ever thank you enough,” Roan replied, and Echo sat down next to him.

“We’ve got to have each other’s backs,” she replied, leaving out that they were all each other had now. It was clear that Marcus had lost his mind. Or at least that their trust in him was severely misplaced. Roan would never be able to get past what Marcus almost cost him. Not after Marcus had vowed so many times to keep them safe, while lying to both of them about everything that happened the night Jaha was killed.

And Echo… well, how could she forgive a man who made her feel like a monster for wanting to kill someone and then turn around and do the thing that would have made Echo into a monster?

It’s not like Echo would have disagreed that Ontari needed to be taken care of. Roan wouldn’t have either. But there was a smarter, safer way to do it. More importantly, it was a discussion that needed to happen. She could understand leaving the kids out of it… but they were all supposed to be partners in this.

There was a knock on Roan’s door, and Echo tensed up for a moment. Roan got up to answer the door, shooting Echo a reassuring look before opening it.

“Sorry I didn’t call,” Clarke said as she walked on in, and Echo jumped up to greet her, realizing that Clarke had been crying.

“What happened?” Echo asked, glancing up at Roan who looked just as confused as Echo felt.

“Nothing, I just needed to talk to you guys,” Clarke said, before swallowing. “Uh, you said you could help me.”

“Clarke, maybe we should talk about this once you’ve calmed down,” Echo said, pulling Clarke toward the couch. Roan sat on the other side of Clarke, shooting a concerned look at Echo.

“I need to know if you’re telling me the truth, if I can actually get out of this,” Clarke said, her eyes pleading with her.

“Yeah, but it’s not going to be easy,” Echo warned, before biting her lip. She knew that Clarke wanted out, but she wasn’t sure if the ends were going to justify the means. After all, if Clarke just gave in, she’d have a pretty good life, all things considered.

“I don’t care,” Clarke argued, and Echo glanced over at Roan, who immediately got up to make a phone call. She raised an eyebrow at him, but he waved her off, before heading into the other room.

“Things are going to get messy, you get that, right? It would be a lot easier for you to just stay put,” Echo warned.

“Echo, I need out. Please,” Clarke begged with a look in her eye that Echo was all too familiar with. Echo leaned back into the couch, taking a deep breath.

“Okay,” Echo finally complied, feeling Clarke’s eager eyes on her. “But you’re going to have to lie, a lot. You’re going to have to convince your entire family that you are an eager participant, show no sign of hesitation. It’s going to take a while. You sure you can play the part?”

“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Clarke said, and Echo turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow.

“Then, so will I,” Echo promised.

 

**The Previous Summer**

 

_Wells_

 

He couldn’t find his damn phone anywhere, which was infuriating. He must have left it somewhere, he realized. Then, he heard a knock on his door. He rushed to answer it, only to find Cage Wallace standing outside his door.

“Sorry. I tried calling you first, but you didn’t pick up,” Cage explained, stepping into Wells’ apartment. “Wait, this is where you are living now?” he teased, and Wells just rolled his eyes.

“You know I was cut off, asshole,” Wells muttered, looking down to see that Cage had brought a case of beer with him. “Did you come here to drink?” He narrowed his eyes at Cage, trying to remember the last time he had actually spent time with the guy. Maybe at one of the last parties his father had thrown.

“Look, my dad kind of let slip what’s been going on,” Cage explained, and Wells cocked his head in confusion. Was Cage Wallace actually here to be his friend? Well, there was a first time for everything, apparently. “I just thought you could use someone to talk to. I didn’t realize just how bad things were.”

“Thing aren’t that bad,” Wells lied, and Cage pulled out a beer and reached out to Wells. He took it, still skeptical about what Cage was really doing here. Maybe he had an angle. This guy usually did. But it wasn’t like Wells had money or any real power anymore.

“So your dad didn’t murder Jake Griffin?” Cage asked, raising his eyebrows, and Wells popped open the bottle, before taking a long swig. “Look, I basically had to pry it out of Dad. He was clearly upset about something, and now I get it. It sucks to know something like that but not be able to do anything about it.”

“Did your dad even try to do anything about it?” Wells snapped.

“Okay, his hands are kind of tied. Your dad has a lot of friends in high places,” Cage defended him, and Wells threw his head back in frustration. More of the same bullshit, just from a different Wallace this time. “But who else have you talked to about this? There has to be someone else who can deal with this.”

“I haven’t told anyone else,” Wells replied, and Cage narrowed his eyes at him.

“No one else?” he asked, and Wells nodded. Cage pressed his lips together as he popped the top off his bottle. “What did your dad say when you confronted him about it?”

Wells took another long sip, before leaning back against the wall. His mind flashed back to all the screaming matches they had, but it was just the same argument over and over again. Wells kept confronting him with theories, and his father denied everything, played it off like Wells was crazy.

“Nothing really,” Wells said, suddenly feeling a bit woozy. He glanced at the bottle in his hand, searching for the alcohol content. There was no way this could be that strong. And Wells drank all the time. This shouldn’t affect him like this. He blinked a few times, as he made his way over to the kitchen table, sitting down in one of the chairs.

“You doing okay?” Cage asked, and Wells glanced up at him.

“I don’t know. I just don’t…” he tried to get out, but he felt like he was about to fall over.

“It’s okay,” he heard Cage say, but he sounded so far away. Wells put his face in his hands, feeling really numb all over suddenly.

“I think I need help,” Wells managed to get out, and he heard Cage walk over to him. He forced his head up to look at Cage, who looked completely unconcerned. He should be more concerned. Wells was not okay.

“I’m sorry,” was all he said, and Wells shook his head in confusion. “Just close your eyes, Wells. I’ll make this quick and painless,” was the last thing Wells heard before everything went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I know you guys have to have thoughts, so hit me up.
> 
> Next chapter will take me a little longer to get up. My outline for the next few chapters needs more beefing up before I can start cranking out updates again. But, there's going to be a big time jump (not six years big, because I'm not an asshole like SOME PEOPLE, but like a few months) and there's gonna be a brand new murder-ish incident with flash forwards and an air of mystery about it. And this one will be the last murder-y thing that happens in this fic.


	16. Not with a Bang

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand I'm back. So there's a time jump here, friends. Basically, last chapter left off about midway through their spring semester. This chapter (not including the flash forwards) is taking place toward the beginning of the fall semester. Each of the POVs kind of catches you up on what our favorite delinquents were up to in that time, before picking up on a brand new semester with some of the old problems along with some new ones. Aaand we've got a brand new murder night to freak out about, because I'm just that extra. 
> 
> Some people have expressed concerns about character deaths, primarily Bellamy and Murphy since both of them have elements of Wes' storyline. Here is what I promise: not one member of murderkru (like that nickname? i just came up with it) is going to be killed in this fic. By that, I mean Clarke, Bellamy, Murphy, Monty, Raven, Echo, Roan, and Marcus are all safe from being killed off, but not necessarily safe from getting hurt. 
> 
> Also, I wouldn't get too caught up in trying to figure out how each character lines up with the characters from HTGAWM. The closest parallel is Raven to Connor, and that's only because I love Connor's storyline so damn much (he's my son). Everyone else has combinations of storylines, or small pieces of them that got altered. Roan is kind of like a Frank in regards to his relationship with Clarke, but more like Bonnie in his career and relationship to Kane, while Echo is the reverse. Clarke is a Laurel/Michaela hybrid. Murphy and Bellamy have split Wes' storyline in half. Murphy has the whole Rebecca/Wes dynamic with Emori but with a happier ending and a similar past connection to Kane as Wes. Meanwhile, Bellamy has the whole bond with Kane from the murder night that Wes had, along with Wes' ultimate relationship with Laurel (Clarke). ANYWAY, all this to say, I wouldn't put too much weight into figuring out what those connections mean going forward. I like taking the original structure and turning it upside down.
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy the chapter! I'm real excited about the next few chapters and have spent a lot of time planning out some good twists and turns for you guys. Love ya'll!!!

_Roan_

 

It had only taken him fifteen minutes to get back to the house. Fifteen minutes. He had expected to come back to a similar scene that he had left, potentially with an actual plan this time. But that wasn’t what he came back to.

No, he came back to the entire street blocked off by ambulances and police cars. He couldn’t even park close to the house, which led to him sprinting past a mob of neighbors who were understandably panicked. He got all the way to the police tape before an officer warned him to stay back.

He took a deep breath, looking around. From the whispers, he could tell that the body hadn’t been taken out of the house. None of the nosy neighbors seemed to know who got shot yet. He also noticed Bellamy’s car was gone… which was probably a good thing.

“We have a pulse,” he heard a voice shout from inside the house, and Roan’s stomach dropped. Roan was certain he was dead… he looked dead when Roan left. There was no way he could survive a shot like that.

“Oh, it’s a miracle,” he heard a woman next to him say, and Roan worried his lip. This was very bad. A living man could remember who shot him, and Roan couldn’t have that. “I was sure that after the second shot whoever it is would be a goner.”

Roan whipped his head around to look at the older woman, his eyes wide with panic. “Did you just say there were _two_ shots?”

“That’s what everyone’s saying, two gunshots,” she said, shaking her head worriedly.

“Excuse me,” Roan shouted at the nearest officer, who came over to him in a huff. “I work in this house. Who is in there?” he asked frantically. Two shots meant someone else in that house got shot, and he couldn’t even begin to guess who. It made no sense. No one else had motive to shoot anyone else. It was _over_. It was supposed to all be over.

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to calm down. We’re doing everything we can. You’ll hear along with everyone else when we know something,” the officer explained, and Roan felt like he was going to throw up. Someone else could be dying… if only he had fucking stayed.

He broke away from the crowd, frantically dialing Echo. There were too many rings, too many seconds that felt like hours. For all Roan knew, she could have come back to the house while he was gone, and it could be her in there.

“I told you no phone calls, idiot,” Echo snapped, and Roan let out the biggest sigh of relief.

“Echo,” he whispered, clenching his eyes shut. “Something horrible has happened.”

 

**Three Months Earlier**

 

_Raven_

 

“Doesn’t it bother anyone that we know he did it?” Monty asked, referring to their latest asshole of a client… who most definitely killed his wife. Raven flipped through the prosecution’s evidence, not wanting to engage on this one.

It wasn’t that it didn’t bother Raven, it did. But it was literally her job. And after what all of them did last fall, it wasn’t like she could judge anyone.

“Pretty sure almost all of our clients last year actually did the things they were accused of. Didn’t bother you then,” Murphy snapped, and Raven exchanged a concerned look with Bellamy. This wasn’t the first time that Murphy snapped at Monty… in fact, this had been an ongoing problem. Both of them were going through a rough time, and found themselves lashing out at each other more often than not. After all, Murphy just spent his entire summer searching for his girlfriend with no luck, while Monty got cut off by his mom, and he and Harper were hanging on by a thread.

“You including Emori on that list?” Monty smirked, and Bellamy immediately grabbed Murphy by the wrist to keep him from darting across the room toward Monty.

“Monty, shut up,” Raven snapped, jumping up to move over toward him on the couch. “That was a low blow,” she whispered with a stern look on her face. The four of them had all agreed… no coming after anyone’s personal lives. Murphy snapped too easily whenever someone brought up Emori. Bellamy completely withdrew whenever someone mentioned Clarke. And Monty just fell apart.

Of all of them, Raven was doing the best, surprisingly. Luna and Raven had moved in together. She used the summer to get her head on straight, started going to therapy… not to talk about what actually happened, but just to figure out how to deal with her anxieties. That was the only thing that was really wrong in her life, actually… the impending doom of whenever Ontari showed back up.

Monty and Murphy had calmed down by the time Kane walked back in, dumping another stack of paperwork that the prosecution sent over. Raven struggled not to roll her eyes. Overworked as always, she realized. She should have known nothing would be different this time around.

None of them knew why Roan and Echo had just spontaneously quit last semester, but it meant that all of them had to work that much harder. Add that to the fact that Clarke refused to rejoin the firm this semester, and the four of them were struggling to do the job that seven people used to do.

“No, I get to be pissed,” she heard Murphy snap, and she jerked her head back in that direction.

“I get that, but we all work together. So, let’s calm down,” Bellamy warned through gritted teeth, and Raven forced herself to take a deep breath.

“Don’t see you calming down whenever someone mentions that massive ring on Clarke’s finger,” Murphy growled.

“Murphy, that’s enough!” Raven shouted. “Just because your life sucks right now don’t mean you get to make everyone else miserable.”

“Oh, what is it like to not be miserable? Must be real easy to sleep at night when you’re lying to your girlfriend,” Murphy snapped, and Raven bit her lip.

“Murphy,” Bellamy warned.

“No, he’s not wrong. It’s a real fucked up thing to do, stringing someone along when you’re lying to them like that,” Monty jumped in.

“Are you kidding me right now?” Raven snapped, furrowing her brows at him. He’s literally doing the same thing she’s doing, but instead of giving a false name for why he’s upset, he’s being vague and distant.

“I mean, we all lie to people, right, Bellamy?” Murphy teased, and Raven whipped her head around to look at them, realizing she had no idea what Murphy was referring to.

“That’s enough,” Bellamy growled, and Kane chose this moment to reemerge from his office.

“What is Bellamy lying about?” Monty asked, and Bellamy immediately looked to his right, before jerking away. Raven’s chest ached, realizing that he was looking to Clarke before remembering that she wasn’t here anymore.

“Why aren’t you guys working?” Kane snapped, and Raven leaned back against the couch.

“Because we’re all waiting for Bellamy to tell us about what really happened to the broken piece of the trophy,” Murphy smirked, and Raven jerked back up, her eyes widening at Bellamy. Bellamy shot a panicked look at Murphy… who genuinely looked like he didn’t care anymore. “What?” he said casually. “Oh, come on, we got away with what happened. Clarke took one for the team and now we’re in the clear. Might as well tell what’s left of your friends about how you’ve been lying to them since December,” Murphy huffed.

“What is he talking about?” Monty growled, and Bellamy swallowed, looking down at his hands.

“Everyone, let’s just take a deep breath,” Kane said, and Raven glanced up at him, wondering if he already knew about whatever it was Murphy was referring to.

“You two looked like you were going to break down and go to the police, and I knew that if anything tied you to the crime scene, you wouldn’t. So, I broke the trophy and let you guys think it happened when I struck Jaha,” Bellamy murmured, and Raven and Kane had to physically hold Monty back.

 

_Marcus_

 

What happened at the house earlier… well, it was a long time coming, if he was being honest. Ever since the interns came back, Murphy and Monty have been ticking time bombs. Murphy has been apathetic at best since his search for Emori turned out to be pointless. He chose random moments to lash out, usually at either Monty or Bellamy. Marcus still didn’t understand what was causing Murphy to be so vicious toward Monty. But with Bellamy, well Marcus had a feeling that Murphy blamed Bellamy for the way his life had been falling apart. And Monty… well, his anxieties from the previous semester were far from gone. He was constantly looking over his shoulder, terrified that Ontari was going to show up again.

To say it was a rough start to a semester would be an enormous understatement. He was struggling to stay afloat without Echo, Roan, and Clarke. If they were there, maybe they could help keep the damn peace.

Which is how Marcus found himself at Wallace’s newest charity event, chugging champagne to give himself the last minute courage he needed to face both Roan Kingsley and Clarke Griffin in the same night.

“I can’t believe you actually wanted to come to this. Isn’t Dante your mortal enemy?” Abby teased, and Marcus forced a chuckle.

“We go up against each other in court more often than I’d like, but last I checked, I’ve beaten him more than he’s beaten me,” Marcus replied, earning a soft chuckle from Abby. Luckily for him, Abby had invited him to this last minute.

After things settled down in the spring, he and Abby had slowly fallen into a sort of friendship. She was still a bit pissed off at him for what happened with Clarke, and he didn’t blame her. But she also didn’t have a lot of people that she would call close friends these days.

Out of the corner of his eye, Marcus saw Roan duck into the next room, so he murmured an excuse to Abby before following after him.

When Marcus caught up with him, Roan had a furious expression on his face. “What are you doing here?” he growled quietly, and Marcus looked around, realizing almost no one was even in the room.

“I just came to talk. It’s been a long time since we last spoke,” Marcus said calmly.

“Not long enough,” Roan snapped, before trying to march away. Marcus grabbed onto his arm, pulling him back. He whipped his head around to look at Marcus again. “Okay, I guess I didn’t make this clear the last time I saw you. But I’m not coming back. If you haven’t heard, my dear wife is still missing,” he hissed, narrowing his eyes at Marcus. “And I have to play the part of the concerned husband who frequently gets pulled into police stations to get interrogated about it. All because of you.”

“I told you I—”

“I know,” Roan groaned right in his ear. “You snapped, you were panicked, it was all too much. I don’t care. You know what this could have cost me.”

Then, Roan marched away, grabbing another drink before heading back in the main room. Marcus clenched his jaw, realizing he should have known that nothing would have changed. Roan had been thrust into an impossible situation because of Marcus’ recklessness.

Marcus took a deep breath before heading back in. He had a backup plan of course, but he really didn’t like it. He marched up to Clarke Griffin, whose arm was reluctantly linked with Cage Wallace’s.

“Professor Kane,” Clarke said with a forced grin.

“Hey, Clarke. And you must be Cage. You know, I’ve known your father for a very long time,” Marcus said politely, extending his hand toward Cage Wallace, who seemed pleasant enough.

“I know. I’ve heard quite a bit about you,” Cage replied.

“I’m not all bad, I promise,” Marcus said with a smirk.

“Debatable,” Clarke spat. Luckily, Cage took that as a joke, and started laughing. “So, what brings you here?”

“I was actually hoping to steal you for a moment,” Marcus said sweetly, and Clarke whispered something to Cage before pulling away.

“This better be good,” Clarke growled, as she led Marcus out toward the back porch. He glanced around, realizing there wasn’t a single person nearby… meaning he had no buffer from Clarke Griffin’s anger.

What he really wanted was to get Clarke to rejoin the firm, to continue to be the level-headed person the other four apparently desperately needed. If she had been there this morning, it never would have escalated to that point. She would have shut Murphy down immediately or found a way to diffuse Monty… and she certainly would have kept Bellamy in check.

Most importantly, he knew just how close Clarke had gotten with Roan and Echo over the summer. If she came back, they might eventually open up enough to hear Marcus out. Roan was too angry, and Echo was too stubborn… but Clarke wasn’t as personally betrayed by Marcus and could see reason.

“Something happened at the house today,” Marcus started, and he immediately saw Clarke’s eyes soften in recognition. As cold as she seemed now, it was nice to know that she still cared about someone. “Uh, Murphy and Monty have been going at it a lot, things were said, and now everyone knows what Bellamy did to the trophy,” he explained as concisely as he could.

“Why are you telling me this?” Clarke asked, crossing her arms.

“Because if you had been there, it wouldn’t have blown up like that, Clarke,” he sighed, running his fingers through his hair in frustration. “And now, all of them are at each other’s throats, paranoid and angry… and I can’t fix it. I don’t know how,” he admitted, throwing his hands up.

Clarke cocked her head to the side, prompting him to continue, and Marcus let out a huff. Of course, she was going to make him say it.

“We need you to come back. Please, Clarke,” he begged, and Clarke clenched her jaw, before looking off to the side.

“No,” she finally said.

“Clarke.”

“If you want them to stop being paranoid, tell them that Ontari is dead. That’s literally the only thing left that they’re panicking about,” Clarke snapped, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Because they’ll find out you killed an unarmed woman who had no way of defending herself?” Clarke accused, and Marcus clenched his eyes shut. He had spent so many months trying to forget about what happened to Ontari, to stop hating himself for what he did. It wasn’t like he could blame Clarke or Roan for still hating him for it.

They stood there in silence for a few moments, and Marcus stuffed his hands into his pockets. “What can I do to make you change your mind?” Marcus finally asked.

“Go back in time. Tell me about what happened to my father when you found out, not a month later. Kick Jaha, a known murderer, out of your house instead of letting him roam about and ultimately strangle me,” Clarke growled, and Marcus’ eyes widened at her. “Choose to talk to us instead of killing Ontari, leaving me with the terrifying image of her slit throat as I try to sleep at night. Don’t tell Bellamy that he’s going to be miserable the rest of his life because of me, especially when the only reason I got trapped back in this life is because of you.”

Marcus swallowed. He had a feeling that his drunken conversation with Bellamy is what led to his inevitable falling out with Clarke. It was hard not to notice the chill in the air after that night, how the two of them were as far away from each other as possible, how Marcus had walked in on one too many of their fights. But, Marcus ended up being right. Clarke ended up engaged to Cage in mid-July, which would have ruined their relationship anyway.

“They need you, Clarke,” Marcus finally said, and her harsh gaze softened slightly. “Raven is the only one even remotely okay. Murphy’s girlfriend is still missing, Monty has almost lost everything, and Bellamy,” he murmured, and Clarke’s eyes widened at his name, “well, he’s a wreck. I don’t know how to help them or how to make them actually talk to each other.”

She turned abruptly, furrowing her brows as she thought this over. Marcus looked back at the window, seeing people were already starting to look for her. He wasn’t sure how bad things had gotten for Clarke, especially since she had mastered looking like she was completely fine when she wasn’t.

“I’m sorry, Clarke,” he confessed, and her jaw twitched. He knew those words wouldn’t be enough. He had made too many mistakes. But if she just came back, he could do better by her, he could help. He’d find a way to help.

“I’ll talk to them. That’s it,” Clarke snapped, before stepping around him to get to the door. It was a start, at least.

 

_Monty_

 

He let out a huff after knocking on Raven’s door. Apparently, Luna had a work function tonight, meaning Raven had the whole apartment to herself.

“Hey, come on in,” Raven said, almost somberly, and Monty furrowed his brows at her. He thought they were going to have a fun movie night. He wasn’t sure why she was so… off.

As he walked in, he realized why. Bellamy and Murphy were sitting in the living room, both raising their eyebrows at him.

“Okay, we’re all here. What do you want?” Murphy muttered, and Monty shot Raven a dirty look. She tricked him into coming here, probably to force all of them to talk or something stupid like that. Monty had told her over and over again that he didn’t have to be friends with the people he worked with. They were barely even friends anymore. None of them spoke over the summer, not one of them checked up on him, and he didn’t check up on them.  

“We’re not all here yet,” Raven replied, and everyone jerked their head in her direction. Then, there was a knock on the door. “No one freak out,” Raven warned, before opening the door. And there was Clarke Griffin, who Monty had only barely seen in classes. Sure, they would make small talk every now and then, but it was nothing like it used to be. Raven was the only one out of the four of them that still hung out with Clarke.

“Sorry I’m late,” Clarke said hesitantly, walking into the apartment. Monty glanced back at Bellamy, who appeared to be at a loss for words. Everyone knew what happened between them, but no one ever talked about it. Monty had no idea if the two of them had even spoken recently.

“Nice of you to join us, princess,” Murphy teased, and Clarke’s jaw twitched at that nickname.

“Kane came to see me today,” Clarke said, matter of fact, and Monty glanced around at the others. Raven apparently already knew this, but Murphy and Bellamy seemed as confused as Monty. “He told me what happened at the house.”

Monty glanced back at Bellamy, seeing his jaw tense up at the memory of the earlier fight. “You knew,” Monty realized, raising an eyebrow at Clarke. Of course, she knew that Bellamy had broken the trophy. They told each other everything.

“Yeah, and I lied to you and Raven. I’m sorry,” Clarke said genuinely, and Monty exchanged a skeptical look with Raven. “That night was crazy. We all did some horrible things, we didn’t trust each other. That’s why we lied to you. We didn’t trust that you would keep the secret.”

“And I was the one who did it, anyway,” Bellamy backed her up, and Monty clenched his jaw.

“Why are you here?” Murphy asked the question that was on everyone’s mind. “I mean, you left all of us.”

“Because there is no one outside this room that understands what I went through that night. The longer we don’t talk, the harder it’s going to be for all of us to move on,” Clarke said tactfully, and Monty leaned back.

The five of them sat in silence, passing glances amongst each other… waiting to see who would talk first.

“I’m still having nightmares,” Raven finally said, and Monty bit his lip. “I’ve been lying about them to Luna, claiming it’s something from my childhood. But they’re mostly about that night, sometimes about going to jail.”

“Yeah, I have those too,” Murphy chimed in, and for some reason, that made Monty feel a little bit better. Like it wasn’t just him that was losing his mind. “They were better this summer, but that’s because I was so busy tracking down Emori that I didn’t have a lot of time to really think about what we did.”

“You didn’t find her?” Clarke asked, and Monty exchanged a sad look with Raven.

“No, I didn’t,” Murphy muttered, looking down at the floor. “I know she’s checking her voicemails on her phone, so she knows where I am and that I’m looking for her. She just doesn’t want to be found,” he said, his voice breaking as he spoke.

As the room fell back into silence, Monty and Bellamy made eye contact, both begging the other to speak first.

“My mom won’t speak to me. It doesn’t have anything to do with that night, or anything, but it’s been hard,” Monty finally admitted. “Which basically means that Harper is all I have left, but I can’t really open up to her anymore or else she’ll find out I was an accessory to murder.”

“That’s why you have to talk to us,” Raven sighed, and Monty closed his eyes. He knew that, he did. But it was hard to talk to any of them. Bellamy was too busy wallowing in his own misery. Raven was happy for once, and he didn’t want to ruin that. And hell, it was next to impossible to get Murphy to have a serious conversation. This was the closest any of them had gotten to having a real conversation about that night in months.

After a while, Murphy started talking about how he keeps having panic attacks and couldn’t figure out what was triggering them. That’s when Monty noticed that Bellamy hadn’t said a single thing. He just kept his eyes fixed on the ground, nodding along to what everyone else was saying. Monty glanced over at Clarke, seeing her notice the same thing as she shot Bellamy a concerned look.

“How have you been holding up?” Murphy asked Clarke, who immediately bit her lip. Monty saw her hands start fidgeting with the engagement ring on her finger.

“Well, you guys know what happened to me,” she sighed, her eyes not leaving her hands. “But I’ve been keeping something from you guys, and it’s been eating away at me.” Bellamy’s head popped up finally, looking genuinely shocked… meaning not even Bellamy knew. “I know what happened to Ontari.”

 

_Bellamy_

 

“Clarke, wait,” Bellamy said, chasing after Clarke so he could catch her before she got to the elevator. She turned around quickly, her eyes surprised that he actually followed after her.

It wasn’t like Bellamy hadn’t seen her before tonight. He saw her all the time, in class, around campus… she seemed to be everywhere. But this was the first time they had _spoken,_ which was more or less his fault. It wasn’t like Clarke hadn’t tried. In fact, she called him every day during the summer and left him a painful voicemail every single time.

It wasn’t her fault that Bellamy decided to run away from his problems, to head home to Octavia, to turn his phone off for months, and to pretend that nothing was wrong. That was on him.

He did it purposefully, knowing that if he had been able to pick up just one of those phone calls, he’d come running back. He was too in love with her not to.

“Yeah?” Clarke replied, raising an eyebrow at him. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words seemed to come out. Too much had just happened in the last hour. He went from being completely isolated, to being thrown into a deep conversation about something he spent all summer trying to repress. And then, Clarke was there… and she told them all what really happened to Ontari. He couldn’t quite wrap his head around the fact that Marcus had been lying to all of them, or that Clarke knew this whole time.

“How are you really?” he managed to stutter out, his gaze accidentally dropping to her hand. His stomach clenched at the sight.

“I’m fine.”

“Clarke–”

“You left, Bellamy,” she snapped, crossing her arms. “You don’t get to question if I’m fine anymore.”

“I know you’re not fine, Clarke. I’ve heard all the voicemails,” he sighed, running his fingers through his hair in frustration. There was one voicemail in particular that had been haunting him, the one from July 7th… the same night her engagement to Cage became official.

“If you cared, you could have turned your phone on to check on me. I’ve got to go,” she muttered, turning around to press the elevator button.

“I couldn’t. I knew I’d come running back if I did,” he explained, stepping closer to her. “And it would have made everything messy again. I mean, you’re now going to marry Cage…”

“Who said anything about me actually marrying him?” she asked with a small smirk, and Bellamy furrowed his eyebrows. “I’ve told you over and over again that I was getting out,” she explained, stepping onto the elevator. “I know what the real thing feels like, Bell. I’m not about to get trapped into anything less than that.”

His jaw dropped as the elevator doors closed behind her. Seconds later, he heard Raven’s apartment door creak open. He groaned, turning around to see three very nosy faces looking back at him with those pitying eyes that he had grown to hate. He appreciated that none of them brought Clarke up around him… but that didn’t stop them from giving him sympathetic looks that made him want to scream. They shouldn’t feel bad for him. He was the one the fucked up. He was the one that threw away precious months of time he could have had with Clarke just because he took one look at Kane’s life and was terrified that it was his future as well.

“Wanna talk about it?” Raven asked, and Bellamy huffed, walking back into the apartment to grab his phone and keys.

“Or we could talk about the fact that princess lied to us and let us all think that Ontari has been alive this whole time?” Murphy asked, and Bellamy turned around to glare at him.

“Shut up,” Bellamy snapped, and he swore Murphy smirked back at him. He groaned on his way out of Raven’s apartment. They could all continue whatever this little meeting was in the morning. He suddenly needed to be _alone_.

In the car, he couldn’t decide who he was the angriest at. Probably himself, for listening to Kane, for not listening to Clarke…

He was furious with Kane, though. It wasn’t enough that his little speech was what pushed Bellamy over last spring, but now Bellamy knows exactly what it was that made Kane into such a mess that night. It wasn’t his broken heart over Abby Griffin. No, it was his guilt over murdering Ontari Kingsley. And Bellamy trusted Kane with everything last year, put all his faith into a man that just snapped and lied to everyone about it… a man who let the four of them spend months looking over their shoulders, terrified that Ontari would show up and ruin their lives.

And he was angry with Clarke for keeping this from him. He understood why she didn’t tell the others. Bellamy had made a similar decision. And he understood why Echo and Roan wanted to keep it quiet. But he was her boyfriend, they told each other everything. She should have fucking told him.

He hadn’t calmed down by the time he got into his apartment. He immediately went to the fridge to grab a beer. And before he thought better of it, he pulled out his phone to scroll through the voicemails Clarke had left him. It was a horrible habit of his, and he found himself doing it every night. He knew it wasn’t healthy… but he missed her.

The first couple were pretty angry. Clarke cursing him out and going off on how he said he’d take care of her and then he just left. Some of them were short, Clarke just asking him to _please_ call her back. Others were longer, Clarke needing someone to talk to about something that happened, and she just unloaded her entire horrible day onto his voicemail. And then there were the ones that _hurt_ … the ones where she cried. The July 7th one was the most painful of them all, which is probably why Bellamy listened to it the most.

_Bell, fuck. I said I wasn’t going to call you tonight. Shit, okay, cards on the table, I’m drunk._

Then, there was the loud intake of breath, followed by the sound of her first breaking into a sob. His chest hurt the exact same way every time he listened to it.

_I don’t know why I keep calling you. It’s not like you’ll answer. It’s not like you want to hear how much of a mess I am. Fuck, I’m sorry. I should just hang up._

But she doesn’t hang up. No, she sniffles for a good couple of seconds, and he can just tell that her bottom lip is starting to quiver.

_I just. I don’t think I can do this. None of this is real, I’m lying to everyone, you’re not here. God, why aren’t you here, Bell? I love you so much and I don’t even know where you are._

And there it was, the exact sentence that made Bellamy tear up every damn time. This voicemail was the only time Clarke ever said those words to him… the only evidence he had that explicitly said what Bellamy meant to Clarke. And he felt sick to his stomach that he had never said those words to her, that she never got to hear them.

 

_Echo_

 

“I’m just saying, she eats like a fucking four-year-old,” Roan huffed, carrying the pizzas into the apartment.

“I don’t know why you’re bitching at me about it. Clarke is the one that always insists on a plain cheese pizza,” Echo muttered, jumping up to grab plates. Speaking of Clarke, where the hell was she? Roan had gotten back from the event already, which meant Clarke shouldn’t be far behind.

“I’m just saying, she’s a grown woman in her twenties. She could at least upgrade to pepperoni,” Roan said with a smirk, and Echo rolled her eyes.

“Okay, where is she?” Echo finally asked, tired of waiting for Roan to let something slip about what happened tonight. It was weird enough that Roan was in a foul mood when he got home. He had actually been really happy these days. He stopped brooding in their apartment all day, and actually got out and did stuff while he wasn’t doing work.

“Marcus showed up,” Roan said hesitantly, and Echo cocked her head to the side. “He tried to talk me into coming back, and when that didn’t work, he went to talk to Clarke. I can only assume he had a similar pitch.”

Echo’s jaw clenched, thinking this over. She knew that Kane would have a hard time with the workload without them, having no clue just how much work Echo and Roan actually did. It was something that Echo and Roan had vented about a lot in the past months, even more so now that they were roommates.

“Okay, change of subject, how is the job search going?” Roan asked, and Echo bit her lip. That was the last thing she wanted to talk about. It wasn’t that she wasn’t looking… it’s just that it wasn’t easy to find something legit to do with her life given her particular… skillset. Working for Marcus had been perfect, minus the whole lying and manipulation problems.

“It’s going,” she blew him off. Besides, she was staying busy enough helping Clarke, who had somehow become one of Echo’s closest friends. It wasn’t like they had all that much in common… but Echo had started taking Clarke out to the gun range, getting her more comfortable with self-protection… Echo had given her basic self-defense training, had taught her the ins and outs of going unnoticed when doing shady things. It was kind of inevitable that they became friends.

She had been worried that Echo and Roan would feel empty without Marcus around, since they had become a family in the last few years. But Clarke melted into their little family so effortlessly. The three of them spent most nights together, watching movies and eating take-out. Whatever tension there was between Clarke and Roan months ago had disappeared, like it didn’t matter anymore. And while Clarke was in a bad place, helping her had given Echo a purpose that actually felt _right_. She wasn’t just helping Marcus get murderers off. She was helping save someone.

And while nothing about the situation was perfect, Echo was _happy_ … and she hadn’t been happy in a long time.

When Clarke finally got to the apartment, it was clear that she had been crying. Echo and Roan exchanged a nervous look. It wasn’t like Clarke to cry anymore. There was a point over the summer where the tears just stopped altogether, where she kind of accepted the hell she was in.

“What happened?” Roan asked, and Clarke bit her lip, before heading over to grab a piece of pizza.

“I went to talk to the others,” Clarke said quietly, and Echo threw her head back. Marcus must have guilted her into checking up on them… a surefire way to get Clarke closer to going back to the damn house.

“You saw Bellamy,” Roan realized, raising an eyebrow at Echo. With a groan, Echo immediately walked down the hallway, grabbing the extra blankets and pillows. It had been too long since the last time Clarke came over upset about Bellamy… but not so long that Echo forgot how they always ended, with a sleepy, cried-out Clarke passed out on their couch.

“Goddamnit,” she heard Roan grumble.

“What?” Echo shouted.

“She told them about Ontari,” Roan replied, and Echo stormed back in, dropping the blankets and pillows onto the floor, before narrowing her eyes at Clarke.

“They’re not going to do anything with that information. It’s been long enough. It’s just so they can start sleeping at night,” Clarke replied with a sniffle, before taking a massive bite out of her pizza. Echo had to admit she had a point. At least the three of them had the knowledge that there was no way they were getting busted for Jaha’s murder. Those four didn’t have that luxury before.

Then, she saw Roan start to move past her into the hallway. Echo chased after him, realizing what he was doing.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Echo said, tugging him back. “It’s your turn.”

“No, it was my turn last time,” he argued, but Echo knew she was right. She had to start keeping a chart for this very reason. “And besides, I’m her ex-boyfriend,” he whispered. “I feel like I’m not the person she should be venting about Bellamy to.”

“Clarke needs to be reminded that men are terrible. Who better than her cheating married ex to remind her of that?” Echo teased, poking him in the chest.

“I hate you,” he muttered, but Echo couldn’t stop smirking. She knew she had him there. “We’re both doing it this time. You owe me after that low blow,” he snapped, before walking back into the living room.  

“Alright, Clarkey, give me that phone,” Echo huffed, following after Roan. Clarke blinked a few times, clearly pretending that Clarke plus her phone wasn’t a recipe for disaster. Echo held out her hand impatiently, and Clarke finally handed it over with a huff.

“You guys don’t have to babysit me,” Clarke argued, and Roan started chuckling.

“We literally have your phone records. We know just how many times you called him this summer,” Roan said, and Clarke furrowed her brows at Echo, who just shrugged in response. Clarke stood up with a pout, picking up the huge bundle of blankets that Echo had dropped, before stomping over to the couch.

“We agreed we weren’t going to tell her we were spying on her,” Echo reminded him.

“I mean, not telling her is just insulting to her intelligence. She knows what we are,” he smirked, and Echo rolled her eyes.

“You guys are being mean to me, so I’m picking the movie,” Clarke snapped from the couch, and Echo picked up the pizza box, before walking toward the couch. She set it up on the coffee table, before plopping down next to Clarke.

Clarke side-eyed her for a moment, but eventually gave up some of the blankets to her. Roan didn’t even wait for Clarke to give him some. He just took them, which earned a few elbows to the stomach from Clarke.

They settled into some new comedy up on Netflix. It didn’t take long for Clarke to end up asleep on Echo’s shoulder. She shot a glare over to Roan, who immediately pulled his phone out to take a picture. She tried to act annoyed, but it was actually a really cute shot.

“This is gonna be our Christmas card,” Roan teased, and Echo rolled her eyes. Then, she felt Clarke’s phone buzzing. She pulled it out to see that Bellamy was calling her. Echo’s eyes widened as she turned the phone to show Roan.

“What the fuck,” Roan whispered. Clarke started to stir, so Echo frantically ignored the call before Clarke saw it and started sobbing.

“You guys can’t keep talking during a movie,” Clarke mumbled, adjusting so now her head was resting on Roan’s shoulder. “It’s rude.”

 

_Clarke_

 

She pulled out her phone again, checking the time. He was running late. It was starting to get dark outside, and Clarke didn’t like to make a habit of hanging out in empty parking garages at night. She felt like that was just asking for trouble.

When Lincoln’s car pulled up, she let out a sigh of relief. For a moment, she worried that something was wrong.

“You’re late,” Clarke called out as he stepped out of his car.

“I could make up an excuse about traffic or something, but you and I both know I suck at time management,” he joked, and Clarke rolled her eyes. She turned to pull the files out of her bag.

“You’re lucky you’re my friend,” Clarke teased, before handing it over to him. He opened it up immediately, his eyes widening at what she managed to get a hold of. “Don’t worry. I wasn’t the one to actually go retrieve these,” she explained, sensing his panic.

“Then, make sure to tell Echo I said thank you,” Lincoln sighed, and Clarke cocked her head to the side. “Right,” he remembered, walking back to his car. She followed him, scanning the rest of the garage as she did. No one else had entered in the time since she got there. “Care to tell me what exactly you’re looking for?” Lincoln asked, pulling out a folder from his backseat, before handing it over to Clarke.

She opened it immediately, seeing Wells’ phone records from the last month he was alive. “I don’t know yet,” Clarke sighed, flipping the page. None of the numbers jumped out to her. “Just had a feeling I’ll know it when I see it.” She gave Lincoln a courtesy wave, before turning around to walk back to her car.

“Oh, and Clarke?” she heard him call out, and she turned around. “Give your boyfriend your burner number if he’s gonna keep calling you,” he said, and Clarke’s stomach dropped. She had seen the missed call from Bellamy from last night, and was just grateful that he didn’t leave a voicemail. It was no secret that her calls and voicemails were being listened to now… that they had been for a month now.

“You’re tracking my phone calls too?” Clarke retorted, and Lincoln let out a huff.

“I’m watching your back. I’d hate for this beautiful plan of yours to fall apart just because your love sick ex-boyfriend put himself on their radar,” he replied, and Clarke bit her lip before nodding. She waved to him again, before getting back in her car.

She contemplated going back over to Roan and Echo’s… but she kind of wanted to take the night to see what she could figure out without Echo taking the whole thing over. Plus, Clarke really didn’t want to get hounded about Kane’s offer for her to come back. She knew where they stood on it. But Clarke… she was wavering.

It wasn’t that she wanted to work for Kane. No, not again. But the others… well, they were her friends. Sure, she still hung out with Raven. But Raven was so busy working for Kane that Clarke hardly got to see her. Clarke felt like shit that she didn’t know what happened with Murphy and Emori, and was furious that she wasn’t there for him. And Monty… he needed the extra support now more than ever.

Then of course, there was Bellamy Blake who, despite Clarke’s best efforts, she couldn’t get out of her head. She was still livid with how he just disappeared… but she also understood. She couldn’t expect him to stick around for a future that he might not ever get.

When Clarke got to her apartment, she noticed that her door was cracked open. Her stomach dropped, trying to come up with a totally normal reason for this. But Cage wasn’t even in town tonight, and it wasn’t like he ever came over to their apartment. Their relationship was just for show, and they both acknowledged it.

Clarke reached into her purse, pulling out her handgun, before slowly nudging the door open. The living room lights were on, and Clarke slowly made her way into her apartment.

“You really need new locks,” Bellamy said, and Clarke let out a loud groan, before lowering her gun. “Clarke, why do you have a gun?” he snapped, as Clarke tucked it back in her bag.

“Bellamy, why are you breaking and entering?” she retorted, cocking her head to the side. “Seriously, what the fuck are you doing here?”

“Well,” Bellamy stuttered out, standing up now, and Clarke just shook her head… because _of course_ Bellamy would chose now to just show up in her damn apartment. “Okay, the plan actually sounded a lot better before I got here. To be honest, I didn’t think you still lived here.”

“I like my apartment. Why would I move?” Clarke huffed, walking over to her room to put her bag away before Bellamy saw the files in her bag.

“Right,” Bellamy mumbled, now looking down at the ground with his hands in his pockets.

“Bellamy,” Clarke said sternly, leaning against her doorframe. He still hadn’t explained why the hell he broke into her apartment… then again, he had a key. Maybe it wasn’t technically breaking in at that point.

“So, Kane asked you to come back to work for him. Are you?” he finally asked, and Clarke sighed.

“Probably not, no,” she admitted. It wasn’t just that she had problems with Kane, or that she’d be forced to work with someone she was very much still in love with. She also needed to have a good amount of free time this semester if she was going to keep working with Echo. And it would be hard to explain to her alleged future father-in-law why she agreed to start working for the man who he was constantly going up against in court. There was a definite conflict of interest.

“I think you should.”

“Excuse me?”

“Okay, let me rephrase that. I would like you to. We all miss you,” he said, before biting his lip.

“Bellamy.”

“Fuck, okay, no. I miss you,” he stumbled, before resting his hands on top of his head like he always did when he was trying really hard to concentrate. “It’s just, I’m miserable. I hate it there. You were my favorite part of working there, even when we were fighting over stupid shit all day.” Clarke felt her entire chest start to warm up, watching his flustered face as he struggled to string sentences together. “And now, you’re gone and it’s all my fault, and nothing feels right anymore. Not school, not work, I’m not sleeping, I can’t stop thinking about you—”

“You left for a reason,” Clarke had to point out, and his face fell. She wasn’t sure what Bellamy’s goal was with this little speech, if this was him trying to get her back or if it was just him getting this off his chest but nothing else had actually changed for him… But she had to remind him why he chose to leave. As much as she hated it, it was a valid reason. She couldn’t promise him anything. Clarke was fighting like hell to get out of this, but she could still fuck it up, or she could end up going with her backup plan… which would mean she would disappear completely, and Bellamy wouldn’t see her again.

“Well, I was a fucking idiot. No, you told me that yourself in seven of the voicemails,” he snapped, and Clarke let out a sigh. She could feel herself get her hopes up with every word he said… but she needed to be careful. He could come to his senses any second now, and leave again… and Clarke might not be able to handle that for a second time.

“Things are different now,” Clarke sighed, closing her eyes for a brief moment. There was no way she wasn’t going to end up sobbing on Roan’s couch again tonight.

“Is he an okay guy?” Bellamy asked, his voice wavering, and Clarke swallowed. Of course, he wanted to know about Cage.

“He’s fine. Kind of dull and a little too full of himself,” Clarke answered. It wasn’t like there was anything really wrong with Cage. She just felt indifferent toward him, and she knew he felt the same. This was a business transaction, nothing more. What Clarke’s parents had was unique; they grew to love each other. But Clarke knew she wasn’t going to have that with Cage. Honestly, just touching him felt wrong. An entire lifetime with him… well it made Clarke feel sick. “He’s not you,” Clarke blurted out, immediately seeing Bellamy’s eyes widen.

“Clarke,” he murmured, stepping a little too close to her now. Her mind flashed back to how he had kissed her in this exact same spot just an hour before the Jaha incident, how soft and loving he was with her… trying to prove that he really did care for her. And he was looking at her the same way now, and Clarke felt like she couldn’t breathe.

“Stop, I’m not doing this again with you,” she said unconvincingly. She could feel her own resolve falter, because fuck, she missed him. She never stopped missing him. She’d spent months falling apart over him, saying she’d do anything to have him like this again.

“I’m sorry,” he pleaded, and Clarke tried her best not to meet his eyes… but it was too late. She had already glanced up at those dark brown eyes that were pleading with her. “I’m so sorry, Clarke. I wasn’t thinking clearly, I was scared. I didn’t know what was going to happen and I bolted. I won’t make that mistake again.”

“Bellamy,” Clarke started to argue.

“I’ll do whatever it takes, Clarke. I won’t run from this again. You mean too damn much to me. I’m here and I’m yours, as long as you want me,” he whispered, his face now inches away from hers. All she wanted to do was touch him again, to feel his warm skin beneath her fingertips. She missed that goofy grin he always made whenever she teased him. She missed running her fingers through his curls. She missed their messy little life.

He wasn’t moving any closer to her, waiting to see if she pulled him in or pushed him away. Clarke knew what she should do. But she rarely ever did what she was supposed to do when it came to Bellamy Blake.

She should stay angry with him, she should think back to her miserable summer without him. But she was so _tired_ of being angry with him, of crying over him, of missing him. He was _here_ , pleading with her. His eyes were so warm, so genuine. His voice was drawing her back in, making it hard for her to imagine going back to not having him.

“I love you, Clarke. I should have told you that a million times by now,” he whispered, closing his eyes as he spoke. Without thinking, Clarke stepped up on her toes, pressing a slow kiss to his lips. She should have known that one kiss wouldn’t be enough, that one kiss would turn into both of them gripping onto each other as tightly as they could as their lips quickly devoured each other.

She should have known that Bellamy Blake wouldn’t be any less addicting now.

“You know I can’t promise you anything, right?” Clarke panted against his lips, remembering why this was so wrong.

“I know,” he whispered, pressing his forehead against hers. “But we’ll figure it out.” And Clarke crashed her lips back into his, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. She liked the sound of that, of them figuring it out together. They had already gotten through so much together… there was no real reason why this had to be any different.

She started pulling him back into her room, not even bothering to flip the light on. His lips didn’t leave hers as they started tugging at each other’s clothing. She literally whimpered when he pulled away to pull her shirt off, but his lips crashed right back into hers as soon as it was off.

His rough hands seemed to be everywhere, trailing every inch of her newly bare skin. She felt as on fire as she did the first time Bellamy touched her like this, that night where he had her coming on his fingers as his lips attacked her neck.

When her bra was flung to the side, Bellamy pulled away from her lips, earning an involuntary whine from Clarke. His hands immediately slid up the sides of her waist, resting just below her heavy breasts, while he just stared. His eyes were dark as he gazed at her half-naked form, and Clarke bit her lip.

“You’re so beautiful,” he finally whispered, before closing the distance between them. His lips found her bare shoulder, as his thumbs merely brushed the sides of her breasts. Her fingers found themselves tangled in his soft curls, and she leaned her head back… focusing on the feeling of Bellamy’s hot breath on her skin.

Her hands got to work undoing his pants, because suddenly Clarke needed him _now_. The romantic part of her wanted to take her time, to spend the entire night slowly exploring each other. But her body was revolting against her, too on fire to slow down for even a second.

“I need you, now,” Clarke ordered, and Bellamy chuckled against her skin. She didn’t need to look at him to know that he had that smug smirk on his face.

“Patience is a virtue,” he teased, and Clarke had to bite her tongue to point out how not virtuous either of them were after everything they’ve done.

“I’ve waited long enough,” she whined, pushing him back so she could pull off his shirt.

“Clarke,” he said stubbornly, as Clarke threw his shirt to the side. Then, she reached into his unbuttoned pants, cupping his hardening cock with her small hands. His lips parted, and she could see his resolve start to falter.

“Bell, it’s been so long,” she pleaded, looking up at him innocently as her thumb stroked up and down his cock. “I want you to throw me onto this bed and fuck me.” His jaw twitched at those words, his eyes turning predatory.

“I have a condition,” he replied weakly, and Clarke couldn’t help but smirk. Of course, he was negotiating with her. It was _Bellamy_ , after all. “You have to take that ring off first.”

She could see the jealousy coursing through his eyes as he gazed back at her. It was something she had worried about a lot since coming back to Arkadian this semester. She knew it couldn’t be easy for Bellamy to see her with her engagement ring on… the horrible reminder that officially she was someone else’s, even when she would always be _his_.

She pried it off immediately, setting it down on the dresser beside her. When she turned back to face him, he grabbed her left hand and lifted it to his lips, pressing long, searing kisses all over it. His eyes didn’t leave hers as he did.

Eventually, his lips found their way back to hers, and Clarke whimpered into his mouth… her heart still pounding from the intimate way he had been kissing her hand. Without warning, Bellamy broke away before throwing Clarke onto the bed. She let out a giggle, not expecting him to take her terms to literally… not that she minded. He tugged her pants and panties off at the same time, before he started getting himself undressed. When he finally started climbing on top of her, that predatory look was back in his eyes.

His lips were desperate as they burned into hers, his hands tangled up in her messy hair. She had forgotten just how amazing his full weight felt on her, how it felt to have her breasts squeezed tight against his chest. “Is this what you needed, sweetheart?” he murmured, before biting down on her bottom lip. “Or do you need more?”

“I need you inside me,” she said, getting right to the point. She needed him as close as he could be to her, she needed to feel him there… the reassurance that this is real, that he’s finally here.

He teased her a bit, rubbing the head of his cock against her clit.

“Bell, please. I need you. I need you so badly,” she begged, and a small growl escaped his lip, before he pressed himself into her entrance. She threw her head back, overwhelmed by how big he was. “Oh, fuck,” she whimpered, before biting her lip.

“Shh, I got you, princess,” he whispered as he slowly pressed into her. “Let me take care of you, baby.”

Her mouth flew open as he bottomed out, but she was unable to form words. Her eyes fluttered shut as he slowly slid in and out of her. Her eyes only opened when she felt his lips on her neck. She could feel his teeth gently teasing her skin, and she knew he secretly wanted to leave a mark on her. Both of them got off on his possessiveness, the way that he just wanted the world to know that she was _his_. But she couldn’t let him leave a mark anywhere that someone could see… not yet.

“Bell,” Clarke whispered, and his head popped up, clearly realizing his mistake. “I’m yours,” she reassured, and his eyes gentled at those words. “I love you,” she finally confessed, and the brightest smile formed on Bellamy’s mouth. His lips crashed into hers, a little messily. Too much teeth, since neither of them could stop grinning like the idiots in love that they were.

“I love you,” he whispered against her lips, before pecking them again. “I love you. I love you,” he kept repeating in between kisses.

 

**Three Months Later**

 

_Murphy_

 

The sound of the gunshot was still ringing in his ears. He tried to focus on what Bellamy and Clarke were saying, but he couldn’t focus on anything. He sucked in a breath, but it felt like he wasn’t getting enough air. There just wasn’t enough air.

“Murphy?” he heard someone call out, but it sounded too far away. “Bellamy, pull over,” he heard Clarke snap, and he could feel the car turn. He glanced out the window, seeing that they were in an abandoned parking lot.

“We can’t stop. We have to keep going,” Murphy mumbled out, shaking his head.

“He’s having a panic attack,” Bellamy said, and Murphy forced himself to look at up at them both. Clarke had been crying, and Bellamy had a nervous expression.

“Murphy, I need you to breathe,” Clarke said calmly, but there were just too many things going on in Murphy’s head for him to calm down. Then, he heard something on the radio.

“Turn that up,” Murphy said, and Bellamy immediately turned the volume nod.

“… at a home belonging to Arkadian Law School professor, Marcus Kane. There is no update on who the two bodies belong to, but a source at the scene speculated that one of the victims was still alive when the paramedics arrived,” the announcer said, and Murphy wasn’t sure if he should feel relieved or terrified at that news.

“This is good news,” Bellamy said quickly, and Murphy looked down at his shaking hands.

Murphy snorted, throwing his head back. In the end, it didn’t matter how many horrible things they did last time around… they were all fucked anyway.

He could still hear the desperate _please_ ringing around in his head, somehow louder than the gunshot. _This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper._

“Bellamy,” Clarke whispered.

“It had to be done,” Bellamy said sternly, talking to Clarke, but looking right at Murphy… as if trying to convince him that what happened tonight was necessary. Murphy didn’t know why Bellamy even bothered. They all knew how this worked by now. Murphy could take care of himself. Besides, Bellamy needed to spend his energy on taking care of Clarke… especially since she almost died _again_ , and Bellamy almost lost a lot more than just his girlfriend.

“We just got word that one of the bodies belongs to District Attorney Dante Wallace,” the announcer said, and Murphy let out a breath.

“What did we do?” Clarke whispered, shaking her head.

“What we always do,” Murphy growled. “Now, we need to get moving. We still need to get rid of the gun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, if you guys haven't voted for The 100 yet for the best show of 2017, please do. We're neck and neck with Outlander, which is just awesome.
> 
> Vote here (closes Dec. 10 at noon ET)  
> http://www.justjared.com/2017/12/03/whats-the-best-tv-show-of-2017-vote-now/


	17. You're Both Okay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew. Finally got this one up. Ya'll, it's been a struggle lately. Would have gotten this up before those other little one shots... but you know, I need angst breaks. 
> 
> Anyway, some drama here and there, some Bellarke sexy times, Murphy is broody, Echo is shady, and I expect at least one person will scream at me in the comment section after this. Woo. Chapter seventeen leggoooo
> 
> Let me know what you guys think! Love ya'll!

_Echo_

 

Luckily, no one was in this parking lot tonight. This was one of the few motels in town that had no video cameras that covered the parking lot too, meaning she was good to go on this stake out. This kid was making her job too easy.

She pushed her seat back, trying to get comfortable. She had only been there for about an hour, and the boy hadn’t left his motel room the entire time she was there. She wasn’t too worried, though. He was probably just asleep. And there was no other exit from his room except that doorway, so she was good.

Then, her burner rang, and her stomach dropped.

“Hello,” she answered hesitantly. Her other hand found her gun instinctively.

“Echo, is he still there?” Marcus asked frantically, and Echo recognized that voice… it was the same one he had the night that Jaha died.

“Yes, who is dead?” she growled, and she heard Marcus suck in a breath. “Hey, just breathe for me,” Echo said calmly, even though her own hand was shaking. She had made a joke earlier about him calling her if a body needed to be dealt with… and she really hoped that wasn’t what this was. “I’ll be right over,” she decided. This was more important than stalking some former client.

“No,” Marcus snapped, causing Echo to jump. “I have Roan here. I’ll be okay, but there’s something I need you to do.”

Echo immediately reached into the backseat, grabbing her duffle bag. She tugged on her gloves, keeping the phone trapped between her shoulder and ear.

“You’re at the motel, right?” Marcus asked.

“Yep. Haven’t taken my eyes off his door,” she replied.

“I need you to make sure that he doesn’t have an alibi tonight,” Marcus said, and Echo’s stomach dropped. Marcus was _framing_ him for something, and Echo couldn’t ask why over the phone.

“Consider it done,” she replied, before biting her lip. If it was just Marcus there, she’d say no. But if Roan was there, that meant he was a part of whatever hell was going on at that house. And Clarke was also there, last time Echo checked.

“Echo,” Marcus whispered shakily, which caught her attention. “You know I care about you, right? That you and Roan mean the world to me,” he said.

“Nothing is going to go wrong tonight,” Echo snapped, cutting him off before he gave her some fucking rant that was clearly a goodbye speech. “I’ve got this.”

She hung up quickly, before leaning forward, scanning the second floor for any sign of cameras. There was something that looked like it might be a camera at the top of the stairs. Fuck. She’d have to take that out before she could do anything else, and it didn’t seem like she had a lot of time on her side.

 

**Two and a Half Months Earlier**

 

_Roan_

 

He said he’d never come back. He gave Clarke a lot of shit for going back to Marcus, especially since she couldn’t list a single legitimate reason to. And despite all that… he found himself back in this damn house, all because his mother got sloppy.

“The charge is drug possession with the intent to distribute,” Marcus explained, passing out the folders to the interns. Roan shot a look at his mother, who was ignoring him. She was too busy sizing up the kids. He wasn’t sure why she was being like this. She knew that Marcus always got her out of trouble whenever her normal attorney screwed up. “Customs agents found about 300 kilos of cocaine in one of the Kingsley containers at the yard during a random weigh in.”

“Wait, it says here that her container was the only one weighed,” Murphy read, and Roan threw his head back in frustration. That meant someone was tipped off or karma had finally come to bite his mother in the ass.

“Alright, well we need someone to look into the personnel that was working at the yard that night, look for anyone who could have motive against the Kingsley’s,” Marcus sighed.

“So, you’re not even going to entertain the possibility that there is a snitch?” Raven asked, and Roan noticed his mother’s lip twitch.

“We don’t have snitches,” Roan lied carefully, and she shot him a dark grin. He really hoped that he was right in this case, though. The last thing he needed was for one of his family members to get punished by his mother.

As the kids started dividing up the work, his mother stood up to leave. “You’ll make sure gets thrown out, right? I have other matters I need to deal with,” she said coolly as she hugged him.

“What could possibly be more important than this?” he whispered, turning so that Marcus couldn’t see his frustration.

“Ontari is still missing, Roan. I know you hated the woman, but at least pretend like you care. We need to find her before the feds do,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him. “She knows too much.”

“Lovely to see you, as always,” Roan groaned, as he opened the front door for her. She shot him a smug grin before exiting the house. When Roan turned around, Marcus’ eyes were on him. “Don’t,” Roan warned, brushing past him on the way back into the living room.

“I’m just happy you’re back,” Marcus said quietly, and Roan whipped his head around to raise an eyebrow at him.

“It’s not permanent. I just need to be here so you don’t screw us over,” he snapped, and Marcus put his hands up defensively, before turning around to head into his office.

He glanced back into the living room, watching the kids dig into the files. It was almost normal for a moment, vaguely reminding him of how they all seemed a year ago.

The only thing that confused him was how well Bellamy and Clarke seemed to be getting along. It was too easy, actually. He narrowed his eyes at them, watching them pass files to each other, bouncing ideas off each other. Like nothing had ever happened between them, like they weren’t both heartbroken after their break up last spring.

And that’s when it clicked in Roan’s head. They weren’t heartbroken at all, because they were screwing again. He clenched his eyes shut, remembering how he thought it was odd that Clarke wasn’t hanging around the apartment as much, but when she did, she was in a much better mood. In fact, Clarke seemed downright happy, which she hadn’t been since the breakup.

“Clarke, a word?” Roan snapped, clenching his fist slightly. Her brows furrowed in confusion as she set aside her notebooks to stand up. Then, he saw Bellamy sneak a glance at Clarke as she walked over toward him, and Roan _knew_ he was right. Roan linked arms with Clarke, dragging her into the room across from the stairs. “You are being incredibly stupid,” he whispered, and Clarke looked up at him with a confused expression on her face. “I know about you and Bellamy.”

“There is no me and Bellamy,” Clarke lied, and he had to admit, it was convincing. She had practiced this. If Roan didn’t know her this well, he would have been fooled.

“So, you’re not screwing your ex while you continue to plan your wedding to Cage Wallace?” he sneered, and Clarke smacked his shoulder. “You know this is a surefire way to get yourself killed, right?”

“I’m being careful,” Clarke said defiantly, and he threw his head back in frustration. He had enough problems with her and Echo’s scheming as it was. Sure, Echo was smart. But she had never taken on a family as ruthless as Clarke’s. These were the kinds of people who got tattoos commemorating their significant kills, who had no problem murdering each other’s loved ones if it kept them all in line. And they’d take out Clarke and Echo quickly if they ever caught wind of what they were doing.

But adding Bellamy to the mix… well, it was too much. He was proof that Clarke wasn’t as devoted to the cause as she pretended to be. And her having feelings for him still… well, that gave her family leverage against her.

“He left you,” Roan pointed out, leaving out his fears about Bellamy’s presence in Clarke and Echo’s plan. He knew that Clarke had already figured out how she thought she could deal with that… and he’d never be able to reason with her.

“And he came back,” Clarke retorted, and Roan groaned. All dangerous reasons aside, he was also livid that Clarke went crawling back to Bellamy. Roan spent his entire summer trying to keep the girl together, when the only person she wanted was Bellamy. It stopped being an issue of jealousy a long time ago, of course. In Roan’s mind, it seemed like Clarke was his ex from years ago. Too much had happened since last fall, making all those old feelings feel like distant memories. This was about the fact that Clarke was family now, and Bellamy hurt her.

Then, Roan remembered something. “Have you told him what your backup plan is?” he asked, raising an eyebrow, and Clarke worried her lip. Of course, she didn’t tell him that. She probably hadn’t told him much of anything about her current plan, which was smart. But he needed to know that there was a possibility that Clarke could just suddenly disappear, never to be heard from again.

 

_Murphy_

 

He didn’t pay attention enough to remember why most of the others had taken off. To be honest, Murphy hadn’t been sleeping. He was having nightmares again. Not the ones from the night they killed Jaha, though. No, these were much older nightmares, ones that he only ever talked to Emori about.

But Emori wasn’t here anymore, meaning he had no one to talk to about them. Without thinking, Murphy found himself looking into the files he had requested from his father’s case. He wasn’t sure why he bothered to get them. He knew how the case went, how easily he was given that horrible sentence. But maybe there was something he had missed… maybe that was why he kept having nightmares about it.

“Are you even listening to me?” Bellamy huffed, and Murphy put his notebook on top of the folder frantically, not wanting Bellamy to see that he wasn’t even working on the case.

“No, sorry. What did you say?” Murphy asked, and Bellamy just glared at him.

“That the guy who allegedly weighed the container wasn’t even listed as working that night,” Bellamy said, raising an eyebrow.

“Okay…” Murphy replied, and Bellamy let out a huff, before marching into Kane’s office with this information. Murphy clenched his eyes shut, thinking this over. So, either the name on the report was from someone who just filled in for the night, or it was a forgery. Once he caught up with why that could help them, Murphy followed after Bellamy.

“And we’re going to need a location for that name for that entire evening. If we can place him anywhere else, we’re good,” Kane sighed, leaning back in his chair. Bellamy nodded, before turning around. He narrowed his eyes at Murphy, before brushing past him.

“Distracted, Mr. Murphy?” Kane asked, and Murphy shook his head, before walking out of his office. The last thing he needed was a lecture from Kane about his work ethic. Last time, Murphy got dangerously close to asking, “What are you going to do? Slit my throat next?” and barely caught himself in time. The last thing any of them needed was for Kane to know that they _knew_ what he did to Ontari.

He walked into the kitchen to get another cup of coffee. He was going to need it if he was gonna get through the day.

Bellamy didn’t even bother talking to him anymore after that. Clearly too focused on getting this case done so he could get back to pretending to not be screwing Clarke again to really concern himself with much else. He wondered how the others even bought the whole just friends thing. The two of them always looked like they were two seconds away from ripping each other’s clothes off.

Murphy didn’t really care… well, not really. He was only bothered because it seemed like everyone else in this house had their person. Sure, Bellamy and Clarke were a “secret” but they still had each other. Raven had Luna. Monty had Harper, no matter how messy things got. But Murphy’s person? He had no idea where Emori was, where she ran off to.

 

_Raven_

 

“I swear, this is the last time I help you do your job,” Luna huffed, before spinning the laptop around.

“Oh my God, you’re good,” Clarke said, leaning forward to get a better view of the video feed from the yard.

“Thanks, babe,” Raven said before pressing a kiss to Luna’s cheek. She rolled her eyes, before getting up to go back into their room.

“You two have gotten cozy,” Monty teased, and Raven just rolled her eyes. The three of them got comfortable on the couch, watching the footage from the night the container was found.

Raven jumped when a phone started ringing. Clarke pulled one of those shady burner phones out of her bag, before running into the other room.

“We should be more concerned about that, right?” Raven asked, nudging Monty in the side.

“I mean, Bellamy made it sound like her family was the mafia, so probably. Or maybe it’s normal for people like that,” Monty shrugged, and Raven forced herself to focus solely on the screen in front of her. She had been worried about Clarke, of course. They had all been. But whenever she thought too hard about it, she felt a huge pang of guilt. Clarke had taken the biggest hit for what they did to Jaha, and could be in all sorts of danger or trouble now because of it. And here Raven was… happy and fine.

“Wait, rewind,” Monty said quickly, and Raven moved back a few seconds. Then, she saw what he did. The Customs agents showed up before the container was even weighed.

“Someone told them what was in that container,” Raven realized with a huge grin.

“Probably a criminal informant, which would make this entrapment,” Monty cheered, and Raven let out a sigh of relief. They figured out how they were going to get this case thrown out.

 

_Marcus_

 

“You can’t just pursue the criminal informant angle,” Roan growled, bracing his hands on Marcus’ desk.

“Well, I don’t see another way out of this,” Marcus huffed, throwing his hands up. “In case you and your mother missed the memo, they found 300 kilos of cocaine in your family’s container. Nia will go to jail for this, because she did it. Entrapment is the only way to get this out.”

He needed this case to be wrapped up already so he could get back to the other issues on the table. He knew Murphy was looking into the Alex Murphy case… which he had to figure out how to put an end to. The boy was barely together as it was. That would just push him over the edge. Then, there’s the issue of Echo and Roan refusing to come back. He had hoped this case would push Roan back toward the firm, but it seemed to be doing the opposite. And Echo… well, last time he saw her, she threatened to kill him.

“Do you know what will happen to the alleged criminal informant?” Roan snapped, now pacing frantically. “My mother will catch wind of what you’re doing, they’ll find the guy before you do, and he’ll die under mysterious circumstances.”

Marcus scanned Roan’s face closely, realizing he was a bit more worked up over this than he normally would be. “You know who it is,” Marcus realized, and Roan’s eyes widened. “Of course, you do. You’d know better than most who had reason to be unhappy in your mom’s inner circle. Is it one of your brothers?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Roan snapped.

“Okay, the CI route is off the table. It’s not like I have proof of it yet anyway. What do you think we should do?” he asked, cocking his head to the side. Without the CI, they couldn’t prove entrapment… meaning their easy method of getting this thrown out was gone. There was no guarantee that he could keep Nia out of prison this time, and the Kingsley’s keep burning bridges with their allies, meaning no higher power was going to swoop in and fix it this time.

“Wait, no one knows you don’t have proof, though,” Roan said, furrowing his eyebrows as he thought this over. “Clarke,” he shouted as he opened Marcus’ office door, and Clarke ran in, looking confused as to why she was being summoned. Marcus was just as confused.

“What? Have we found the informant?” Clarke asked, glancing between the two of them.

“No, but you’re going to tell your future father-in-law that we have,” Roan said, and it clicked in Marcus’ head.

 

_Clarke_

 

It had been at least two years since Clarke had actually visited Dante Wallace at work. The last time had been when she needed a recommendation letter. His office hadn’t changed much, though.

Clarke started to cross her legs, but remembered that she couldn’t comfortably do that… since Bellamy literally left the largest hickey she had ever been given on her inner thigh. She flinched at the dull pain, before her head was flooded with memories of last night. She had to cover her face to conceal her blush. For fuck’s sake, she was in the lobby of the District Attorney’s office.

She was a little bit nervous about meeting with Dante… if only because she had her own problems with him at the moment. He acted skittish last week when Clarke asked him about what he met with Wells Jaha about, seeming a bit too defensive as he blew the question off. Which confirmed Clarke’s suspicions that her best friend tried to do something about what happened to her father. But perhaps Dante was just skittish because he felt guilty that he didn’t do anything about it. Clarke didn’t need to jump to any conclusions just yet.

“District Attorney Wallace will see you now,” the receptionist said, and Clarke realized that Maya didn’t work here anymore. Clarke walked up to the desk, thinking back to the last time she saw Maya… it was definitely the last time she came into the office.

“How long have you been working here?” Clarke asked, narrowing her eyes at the girl.

“Just a year,” she replied. “I used to work for the ADA, but got a promotion after the last receptionist got fired.” Clarke nodded along, before turning around. That didn’t sound right. Maya wasn’t the kind of girl to just get fired.

She walked into Wallace’s office, greeting by a big hug.

“What brings you in here? Finally ready to come work for me instead of that Marcus Kane?” he teased, and Clarke forced a laugh. Like she would ever consider working for a corrupt DA’s office. At least she knew about all the skeletons in Kane’s closet.

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about the Kingsley case,” Clarke said as soon as the door was shut, and Dante’s eyes went wide.

“You and I can’t be talking about this. You’re working for the defense,” he snapped, and Clarke bit her lip, trying to look as nervous as possible.

“I know. I shouldn’t be here. But I felt like I had to tell you this,” Clarke said, before looking down at her feet.

“Clarke,” Dante warned.

“You’re trying to bust the whole family, right?” she asked, and he narrowed his eyes at her. “Okay, you don’t have to confirm or deny anything, but hear me out. This case will only get you Nia Kingsley, and you know that.”

“Once she’s out of the way, we have a way of getting the rest of them,” he whispered.

“Well, that plan probably won’t work out after Kane exposes your criminal informant in open court,” Clarke sighed, and Dante’s eyes widened, urging her to continue. “Look, I listened in on a conversation between him and one of the other students. He’s got proof that it’s entrapment and it’ll expose your CI…”

“Meaning the years that the state has put into the investigation of the Kingsley’s will have been for nothing. I’ll lose my most valuable asset in my case against them,” he huffed, throwing his head back in frustration. “Thank you, Clarke,” he muttered, walking back to his desk while shaking his head.

“I just thought you’d want to know,” Clarke added in, and he shot her a thankful smile. If Kane was right, Wallace’s only option would be to offer a plea deal to Nia, maybe have her pay a fine or something. She let out a small breath, amazed that she actually just pulled this off.

“You know, having you in that firm might be a bit of an asset after all,” Dante finally said, looking up at Clarke. “I know I was angry when you announced that you were resuming your internship… but I think you and I could help each other.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Clarke said with a forced grin, and Dante waved his hand, dismissing her so he could get back to work. “Oh, and whatever happened to your old receptionist? Maya, I think her name was?”

“Had to let that one go. Very unprofessional,” Dante replied, and Clarke walked out of his office, clenching her jaw. If she didn’t already know it, she knew it now. Dante Wallace was hiding something.

She waited until she got into her car before dialing Lincoln.

“Not expecting a call from you today. Did you find something?” he answered, and she could hear that he was still at work.

“Not exactly. There’s a girl who used to work for Wallace named Maya Vie. I want to know what happened to her after she got fired,” Clarke explained.

“Any particular reason?” he asked.

“Because she would have gotten fired right after Wells Jaha showed up at Wallace’s office. Like potentially the week after he died. She might know exactly what Wells talked to Dante about,” Clarke said. She glanced down at her main phone, seeing a few texts from Kane.

“You’re going out on a limb here, Clarke,” Lincoln replied, and she forced herself to take a deep breath. “Okay, fine. But I’m gonna need something from you in return.”

 

_Bellamy_

 

He was about halfway through his flashcards when he heard his front door open. “In here,” he shouted to Clarke, sitting back up on his bed.

Based on the smirk on Clarke’s face, he figured her plan with Wallace actually worked. He pushed his comforter off to get up, but Clarke stopped him. “Nope, stay over there. I’m mad at you,” she said, raising her eyebrows at him playfully. She quickly pulled off that damn engagement ring, tucking it into her purse.

“You’re mad at me?” he teased before biting his lip, and she just nodded as she set her stuff down. “Why would you be mad at me, princess?”

“I think you know exactly why I’m mad at you,” she replied, cocking an eyebrow.

“I won’t comment until I know the exact charges against me,” he joked, and Clarke bit her lip, before pulling off her shoes.

“Well, I didn’t realize what you did until I got to class this morning and tried to cross my legs,” she said, crossing her arms. Bellamy had to bite his lip to keep from smirking. This had been a game they had been playing ever since Clarke said he could put marks on her as long as they were hidden. And last night, he left a very large one on the inside of her upper thigh. “You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?” she teased, and he shrugged before starting to get out of bed again. “Nope. Stay right where you are,” Clarke said, pushing him back onto the bed. “I’m not done with you,” she whispered right in his ear, and a moan escaped his lips as she straddled his lap.

“Are you wanting me to say that I’m sorry?” he asked, leaning forward to try and capture her lips, but she pulled away so he couldn’t reach her. “Because I’m not.” In fact, it was something he thought about a lot today. The more primal part of his brain just loved that every time Clarke tried to cross her legs, she had a small reminder of last night. It meant that her entire day was flooded with memories of Bellamy’s head between her thighs, that even when he wasn’t with her she was reminded that she was _his_.

“What am I going to do with you?” Clarke teased, running her fingers through his curls before pressing a slow kiss to his cheek. His hands palmed her ass, grinding her closer to him. “You know,” she whispered right in his ear, her voice low and sultry, “I wore something special for you today, but I don’t know if I want to show you now.” And if he wasn’t turned on before, he certainly was now.

“Come on, baby. Show me,” he pleaded, and Clarke gently bit on his earlobe. _Fuck_ , she was going to kill him tonight.

“I don’t _know_ ,” she whined right into his ear, and a growl escaped his lips. She wanted him to beg.

“Please, princess. I wanna see what sexy thing you’re wearing for me,” he said, and Clarke pulled back with a mischievous grin on her face. It was clear that tonight was one of those nights where Clarke was in charge, and _fuck_ he loved it when his princess got bossy.

“Okay, but you have to keep your hands to yourself,” she smirked, and Bellamy threw his head back. He knew for a fact that there was no way in hell he could keep that up for long. It was killing him enough to go all day without touching her. And now, she was grinding herself on his lap with sex in her eyes and about to undress for him, and he didn’t know how he was supposed to _not_ touch her. “And I want this off, first,” she added in, tugging at his t-shirt.

With a smirk, he complied with her terms, throwing his t-shirt off before settling back against the headboard, making a show of placing his hands firmly on the bed. He expected her to pull her shirt off immediately, although now he felt stupid for thinking Clarke would give in that easy. No, she needed to tease him first.

She leaned forward, pressing searing, biting kisses down his neck. And he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Her hair was a little bit messier than normal, her curls more out of place than when he saw her earlier that afternoon. She had dark red lipstick on, and he knew that traces of it were going to be all over his neck and chest by the time this was over, not that he minded one bit.

Her lips kept trailing down him until she stopped on a spot on his chest. He furrowed his brows in confusion until he felt her teeth on his skin. Her eyes flickered up to him as her tongue drew a circle on his skin before she began sucking. He threw his head back at the sensation, only to feel Clarke’s hand tilt his head back down… making him watch Clarke mark him.

His eyes were transfixed on her gorgeous lips as they attacked his flesh. Somehow, he managed to keep his hands where he left them, although he was itching to touch her now.

Clarke normally wasn’t possessive, not like Bellamy was. She didn’t constantly need to be near Bellamy, and had never left a damn hickey on his body. Any possessive behavior she exhibited was almost exclusively in the context of sex, where she was only saying or doing it to turn Bellamy on. She _knew_ this was a surefire way to have his cock throbbing for her, a way to make him _beg_ for her.

Another growl escaped his lips as her teeth sunk in harder. He was gripping the bedsheets in his hands, trying to keep them busy so he wouldn’t be tempted to touch her. But _fuck_ he wanted to run his fingers through her hair, tugging back so he could make her look up at him. He wanted to tear off whatever clothing was in between them, to pin her down so he could bury his face in between her thighs and make her scream.

“Baby, please,” he finally gave in, and those gorgeous blue eyes just fluttered up at him innocently. Then, she sucked down harder, and a whole slew of curses flew out of Bellamy’s mouth.

Her hips started grinding against him again, and her nails were sinking into his back… and Bellamy wasn’t sure he could control himself much longer. He could feel her moaning onto his sensitive flesh, before sucking again. He knew that the mark was going to be dark on his tan skin, the kind of mark that would linger there for _days_. Every time his hand brushed against his chest or he changed shirts, he would be reminded of this exact moment where the gorgeous love of his life had him completely at her mercy and was making him feel too _good_.

Her lips were swollen as she pulled away, dark and bruised from assaulting his sensitive skin. Her eyes were dark as they lingered on his chest, and a smirk danced across her lips. He glanced down, realizing that Clarke left her mark right over his heart.

Then, her lips crashed into his, and he whimpered into her mouth. Both of her hands ended up tangled in his curls, tugging at them roughly as she attacked his lips.

“Princess, are you trying to kill me?” he teased against her lips, before Clarke raked her teeth against his bottom lip.

“Just trying to even the playing field,” she smirked, and he raised an eyebrow at her. She leaned in, resting her lips right on his ear, before whispering, “All day, I’ve been rubbing my thighs together, wanting you. Couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

His mouth went dry, and it took his complete concentration to keep his hands from pulling her closer to him. “Are you ever gonna show me what you wore for me, pretty girl?” he growled, and Clarke pulled back, her lustful eyes giving him a playful once over.

“Yeah, just needed to remind you that you’re mine first,” she teased, and Bellamy rested his head on the headboard, forcing himself to take a deep breath before Clarke did something else to try and kill him. And he was glad he braced himself, because when Clarke pulled off her shirt, he might have had a small heart attack.

She was wearing a black bra, a sharp contrast against her gorgeous pale skin. The fabric was far too see-through, meaning Bellamy could see her hardening nipples perfectly under all the lace. And when she arched her back to push her heavy breasts out further, all he could do was stare, with his jaw dropped. He could see the other fading marks he had left on her in the last week, one light one next to her belly button, a much darker one right below her breast.

“Baby, can I please touch you?” he whispered weakly, and Clarke slowly leaned forward with that same mischievous look in her eyes, before pressing her lips slowly against his. He could feel her hard nipples rubbing up against his chest. Her hand rested right over the mark she just left on him, pressing down hard enough to earn an involuntary growl from Bellamy.

“Say you’re mine first,” Clarke demanded.

“I’m yours,” Bellamy conceded breathlessly.

“Again,” Clarke smirked.

“I’m yours, Clarke. All yours. I’m always going to be yours. I love you so much. Please,” he pleaded against her lips.

“You can touch me,” Clarke said quickly before Bellamy threw her onto her back, climbing on top of her quickly. His hands were cupping her breasts roughly, as he growled into her neck. He kissed down her chest, before resting his lips right over the thin fabric covering her nipple.

The idea that she had been wearing this all day just for _him_ did something to him, something primal that just made him _need_ her. It had the same effect as finding out that she spent all day thinking about what he did to her last night. He still had a hard time believing that she was his again, and every time she reminded him that she was, he felt his entire body grow warm.

“You’re mine too, princess,” he reminded her before biting her bottom lip. “All mine.”

She nodded desperately, her lips parted. He grinded his hips into hers, pressing his throbbing erection in between her legs. She knew exactly the effect she had on him, how much she drove him insane with her teasing. “Fuck me, Bell. Make me yours,” she whispered breathlessly, coming off more like a plea than a command. And he wasn’t about to deny his princess.

Within seconds, they were both pawing at the remaining clothes, ungracefully pulling off their pants and underwear, before crashing back into each other. She was soaking wet for him, which was great because he wasn’t sure he could wait a second longer.

There was nothing gentle about how they fucked each other. Bellamy was slamming into Clarke as she clawed at his back, biting around his collarbone.

“God, you fuck me so good, Bell,” Clarke murmured into his ear. He buried his face into her neck, fighting the urge to start sucking at her skin. “No one else could make me feel this good.”

His fingers found themselves in her hair again, tugging slightly to make her look up at him. “Why’s that, princess?” he growled, loving the heated way her eyes widened at him.

“Because you’re mine and your cock fills me up so good. Fuck, I love your cock, Bell,” she whimpered, as he slowed his pace. Then, he slammed back into her, causing her to cry out.

“What about me, babe? You love me?” he teased as he lowered himself down over her.

She started nodding furiously, her breathless mouth panting against his lips. “I love you so much. Love you the most, Bell.” He growled into her mouth, his tongue darting out to find hers. Her hands slid down to palm his ass, clawing at him to fuck her harder. He moaned at the contact, letting his moans vibrate through Clarke’s mouth.

He eventually buried his face back into her neck, whispering filthy, terrible things into her ear. He couldn’t help himself. She was too perfect, too sexy… and all he wanted to do was tell her everything he wants to do to her… over and over.

And based on how she was pulling his hair and screaming into his ear as she pulsated around his cock, he figured those were the filthy things she wanted to hear.

“Need you to come for me, Bell. Want to feel you come inside me,” she panted into his ear, sensing that he was only moments away from coming undone. “You’re so fucking hot when you come for me. Please, Bellamy.”

And when he fell apart, he grunted into her skin, pulling on her hair. She whispered filthy encouragements into his ear, her lips grazing his ear sexily.

They both lied there for a few minutes, panting into each other’s skin. Tonight was something else altogether. Maybe it’s just because she had teased him so hard before, or because she dressed all sexy just for him. But something came over both of them, driving both of them to fuck roughly, biting and clinging to each other like animals. And it was _incredible_.

“I didn’t hurt you, did I, baby?” he asked, giving her body a once over.

She smiled sweetly, looking at him with affection in her eyes. “No, Bell. You made me feel _so_ good,” she whispered, before pressing her lips to his. Her bruised lips felt so soft against his right now, so tender… and he melted into her. He was so madly in love with Clarke. It was driving him mad. He wasn’t sure he could be away from her for even a day. He was certain he’d never want to.

As their breathing calmed down, they still pressed slow kisses to each other’s lips. His hands were rubbing up and down her back, pulling him toward her chest. “Hey, Clarke?” he finally said, pulling his lips off hers.

“Mhmm?”

“You don’t have any events this week where you need to wear something low cut, do you?” he asked, and Clarke smirked at him.

“No, why?” she asked.

“Because I wanna give you a matching mark over your heart,” he whispered, and Clarke sucked in a breath.

 

**Two and a Half Months Later**

 

_Monty_

 

“Everything is fine,” Murphy said, bracing his hands on Raven’s panicked shoulders. “We’ve done this before. We’ll do it again,” he said calmly, and Monty turned back around. Kane was still in his office, and he had no idea who he was calling.

“Roan,” Raven said shakily, and Monty turned around again. “Please, can we move yet?” she asked, her and Murphy standing just inches away from where Dante’s body had fallen.

“No, you might step in the blood,” Roan snapped, and Raven buried her face into Murphy’s chest. Monty had to look away. He would have thought after the last body he would have gotten used to this. But it was equally as terrifying this time around. At least he didn’t have the misfortune of being trapped right next to it. “Monty, go grab Clarke and Bellamy,” he ordered, and Monty was more than grateful to get out of that room for a few seconds.

He walked past the stairs, pushing open the door to the dining room. Clarke was still hysterical, and Bellamy was trying his best to get her breathing under control.

“Hey, princess, breathe for me,” he heard Bellamy say, and Monty decided to wait until Clarke was a little bit calmer before dragging them back in there. “You’re okay, I’m okay,” he whispered, resting his forehead against Clarke’s. Monty felt like he was invading a personal moment… but it wasn’t like this was something he hadn’t seen before.

“I know, I know, but…” Clarke trailed off, wiping her eyes.

“You’re both okay,” he heard Bellamy say, and Monty saw something he wasn’t prepared for… Bellamy’s hand resting on Clarke’s stomach. Almost as if she was…

“Monty, where the hell are you?” he heard Roan shout, causing him to jump. Bellamy and Clarke noticed him immediately, and rushed over toward him.

“Sorry, Roan asked me to come get you guys,” Monty tried to explain as Clarke whizzed past him. Bellamy tried to push past him too, but Monty grabbed his arm. “Is Clarke pregnant?” Monty whispered, and Bellamy shot him a warning look.

“Don’t,” Bellamy warned with a panicked look in his eyes. All the sudden, what happened tonight made a lot more sense.

“I won’t tell anyone, I promise,” Monty replied, and Bellamy swallowed, before following after Clarke.

“Marcus, what is the plan?” Roan shouted, and Monty sprinted back into the room.

“I don’t know. Just let me think,” Kane snapped, and Monty could see him pulling at the ends of his hair frantically.

“Has it ever occurred to anyone in this house to just call the damn police?” Raven snapped. But Monty knew that was too simple to actually be a legitimate option. There were factors at play that they couldn’t predict.

“Raven, if we call the police, everything comes out. It won’t matter who shot Wallace at that point,” Murphy explained, and Monty could see the realization sink in on Raven’s face.

“Everyone in this room has helped cover up a murder. If one of us goes down, we all will,” Monty realized, and the entire room fell into agreement. No cops would be called. Not until they figured out what to do with the body.


	18. The Next Dead Body

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a super intense update or anything, although the flash forwards have some cliff-hangery info for ya'll. I would almost call this chapter "chill" (as in I don't anticipate any of you screaming after it or maybe you will? idk) if there was such a thing in this fic. The next chapter will be similar, I think. Then, when we hit chapter 20, shit will start hitting the fan again and questions will start getting answered. 
> 
> Not sure when I'll get the next update up (I'm hoping at some point over the weekend). In general, it's my plan to get this whole fic done before the new year when I start school again. 
> 
> Anyway, I live for your comments, guys. Love the theories and the excitement over the Bellarke baby. Love you guys! Look forward to hearing what you think!

_Clarke_

 

Bellamy held his hand out to her, patiently waiting for her to hand the gun back over. Shakily, she finally did. She wasn’t sure this was the best way to get rid of the gun, but they didn’t have time on their side.

Bellamy shot Murphy a warning look before striding off, gun in hand.

“How do you sleep at night?” Murphy asked, and Clarke swallowed, staring down at the ground. The truth was, she didn’t. She hadn’t for a long time. There were too many ways her life could fall apart at any given moment. And tonight would just be an addition to the list. “I mean, all of this is your fault.”

“Stop,” she warned through gritted teeth.

“I mean, it was your fault that the DA came over, right? Was it that he found out you’re pregnant with someone other than his son’s kid? Or did he somehow figure out that you had something to do with what happened to Cage?” Murphy taunted her.

“I had nothing to do with that,” Clarke lied, stepping toward him defiantly.

“Just like you had nothing to do with Jaha?” he growled, and Clarke’s jaw clenched. She could see where his thoughts were going. Wallace showed up at the house because of Clarke, which never would have happened if Clarke hadn’t gotten back in with her family. She wouldn’t have gone back to them if they didn’t have a murder to cover up. Jaha only died because Bellamy was protecting her. Every murderous road seemed to come back to Clarke.

“Murphy,” Bellamy snapped, jogging back over to them, and Clarke let out a sigh of relief. “What’s going on?” Bellamy asked, raising a concerned eyebrow at Clarke.

“It’s nothing,” Clarke lied, staring Murphy down. The last thing anyone needed was to rile Murphy up anymore. If they were going to get away with this, the three of them needed to stay calm.

“Okay, let’s get back in the car,” Bellamy ordered, marching around to the passenger side.

“I get that you’re freaked out, but don’t take it out on me,” Clarke snapped as soon as Bellamy was out of earshot.

“Clarke,” Murphy groaned.

“Blame me if you want, but don’t forget what you did tonight,” Clarke growled, before getting into the car.

 

**Two Months Earlier**

 

_Echo_

 

She needed the pounding on the door to just _stop_. Echo was too hungover to deal with this shit. She threw on a sweatshirt and tugged on a pair of leggings before marching toward her front door. Roan had left for work at least an hour ago, and Echo had no idea how he wasn’t more fucked up after last night.

“No,” was all Echo said when she opened the door to see Marcus Kane standing on the other side of it.

“I need a favor,” he said, and Echo started to shut the door, but Marcus stopped her.

“This ought to be good,” Echo muttered, giving in as Marcus invited himself into the apartment.

“I have a John Murphy problem,” he said, and Echo threw her head back. She warned him about hiring the boy. She didn’t care what kind of guilt Marcus felt. He should have just left the kid alone.

“And I have a Marcus Kane problem,” she retorted, raising an eyebrow.

“Alright, come on. Let me have it. Tell me every single thing you’ve wanted to yell at me about. I can take it,” Marcus huffed, cocking his head to the side.

“You’re a hypocrite and a liar,” Echo snapped. “And now, a murderer.”

“You’re a murderer too,” Marcus said, crossing his arms.

“You’re the reason Clarke went back to that family. You’ve ruined her life,” Echo growled.

“Yet, you’re helping her get out, correct?” he asked as if this was somehow part of his master plan. “That’s the only logical explanation for Clarke’s new attitude on life.”

“What is your John Murphy problem?” Echo asked, changing the subject so Marcus didn’t ask any questions about what she and Clarke were up to. The less people who knew, the better. Especially since Marcus was still close to Abby Griffin, which she did not understand at all.

“He’s looking into the Alex Murphy case. One of my friends alerted me that he had requested all the transcripts from the case,” Marcus said, and Echo’s stomach flipped. Saying that he had a John Murphy problem was an understatement. Echo had dug into Murphy’s past, seen all the years of anger management and therapy. When Murphy starts asking the right questions, it wouldn’t take long for him to figure out exactly who to blame for his dad’s sentence. And that boy would _snap_.

Echo sat down, thinking this over. On one hand, Marcus deserved whatever would come to him if this got out. On the other hand, Echo didn’t know how Murphy would react to the news. Echo was really good at reading people, understanding just how much it would take to make them snap. And with everything that had happened in the past year, this could be Murphy’s breaking point.

“He’s only just started looking into it, though. And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that he’s kind of alone,” Marcus sighed, and suddenly Echo saw what Marcus was really asking. He wanted her to find Emori.

It made sense, actually. Everyone else had a person to talk about their issues to, to help keep themselves sane. Marcus had Abby, Echo and Roan had each other, Clarke had Bellamy… even though Echo was still furious that they were both being so stupid. But Murphy’s shoulder to cry on disappeared.

If Murphy had Emori back, he’d probably get distracted and drop the whole Alex Murphy case. She’d help him move on from it, see a future instead of burying himself in the past.

“I’ll find Emori,” Echo whispered, looking down at the ground. It’s not like it would be particularly hard. “But I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it for him,” she snapped, and Marcus nodded appreciatively.

“Thank you. I knew that I could—"

“Stop,” Echo growled, standing back up. “I’m not doing this for free. I help Murphy find Emori, and you’re going to do something for me.”

“What do you want?” Marcus asked, tucking his hands in his pockets with a confused expression on his face.

“Everything you have on Dante Wallace,” Echo replied, a flash of concern danced across his face. “You can’t ask questions. But I need it.”

His jaw clenched, clearly aching to know what she was up to. But he couldn’t know. No one could know. Not until she and Clarke got proof. Echo knew there were no coincidences in this world. There was no way that Wells dying right after meeting with the DA was a coincidence. And if Clarke’s intel was correct, it meant that Dante Wallace had a lot of motive to want Wells Jaha, the only person who figured out why Jake Griffin was murdered, dead.

“Consider it done,” he finally replied, and Echo gestured for him to leave.

 

_Raven_

 

She was looking over the jury score chart that Clarke had made, writing in the margins the kind of emotional arguments that would win each juror over.

“Finally, he teaches us something useful,” Monty muttered, and Raven had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing too loud. But they were all kind of thrilled to get this insight into picking juries, especially for a case like this one.

Raven glanced up at Charlotte who was sitting nervously by Kane, and she bit her lip. Luckily, the girl had the best defense attorney money could buy. And she was going to need it, especially since she killed a cop.

“Your Honor, I’d like to file a motion to exclude the testimony of alleged abuse from the defendant’s mother,” the prosecutor announced, and Raven’s eyes went wide.

“No, we picked a jury based entirely off the emotional appeal,” Clarke muttered, snatching the chart out of Raven’s hands.

“Is there a particular reason why they waited weeks to file this motion?” Kane snapped, standing up angrily. “You know, other than to let me form my entire case around the fifteen years of abuse that the defendant’s mother endured?”

“Your Honor, that testimony is from the defendant’s mother who has every reason to fabricate abuse claims to save her daughter. Her mother never filed a report with the police. There are no witnesses to the abuse outside of the family,” the prosecutor growled, and Raven threw her head back. It wasn’t like the girl’s mother could actually file a report with the police… since they were all coworkers with her _husband_.

When they all gathered back at Kane’s house, they all felt defeated. That poor girl was getting tried as an adult just because she defended her mother.

“I think I found something,” Bellamy mumbled, scrolling on his laptop. “Charlotte has kept a blog that has a very detailed account of the abuse over the years,” he explained, and Kane crossed his arms.

“How am I supposed to get a teenage girl’s blog admitted into evidence, Mr. Blake?” Kane snapped, and Bellamy bit his lip in frustration. Clarke took the laptop off his lap, and immediately started scrolling through the blog. Raven had already looked through the blog when doing initial research, figuring knowing what Charlotte went through would help with the prep questions.

“Hand me the witness list,” Clarke murmured, and Monty handed it over.

“It was just a suggestion,” Bellamy snapped, looking up at Kane.

“Well, the abuse argument is going out the window now. We have to find another angle,” Kane grumbled.

“There is no other angle. We picked a jury based entirely on the abuse angle,” Raven groaned, and Kane’s jaw twitched.

“We can still do the abuse argument,” Clarke said, narrowing her eyes at the screen.

“How am I supposed to get that admitted into evidence, Griffin? Didn’t your father teach you better than this?” he snapped, and Clarke slammed the laptop shut, glaring back at him.

“Read the damn blog, Kane. She doesn’t just talk about abuse. She talks about school, about things that some of the prosecution’s witnesses could bring up on the stand. And if they did that, everything on the blog could be allowed into evidence, including the abuse claims,” Clarke growled, standing up with a triumphant look on her face.

Raven glanced back at Monty, who was smiling smugly. It was no secret that they all had some resentments toward Kane, especially since he had been even more infuriating to be around than ever. And it didn’t help that they all know exactly what he did to Ontari. He wasn’t any better than the rest of them, and God, Raven loved it when one of them put him back in his place.

“Good idea,” Kane finally conceded through gritted teeth, and Clarke sat back down. Raven got out her phone to text Murphy about it, since he loved it when Kane’s ego got bruised. “You’ll all stay up all night reading through the blog.”

“There is over a thousand entries,” Monty groaned.

“Then, get reading,” Kane grumbled, marching back into his office.

 

_Murphy_

 

“So, you’re not working for Kane again?” Murphy asked, narrowing his eyes over at Echo, whose eyes were fixed on the road.

“Absolutely not. But I owe him a favor and we’re checking out this lead,” she huffed, and Murphy threw his head back. She wasn’t even telling him what they were driving this far out of town for.

“You left because of Ontari, right?” Murphy asked, and that caused Echo’s jaw to twitch. “I get why the rest of us are so upset about it, but you literally tied the woman up. Why do you care if he killed her?” Murphy had to ask.

It wasn’t like none of them could forgive a murderer. Him and the others all forgave Bellamy, understood that it had to be done. Echo and Roan still think Clarke did it, and clearly, they forgave her for it. But Kane… he lied to all of them, letting them all think that Ontari was still out there, looming over all of them. He used that terror as a way to keep all of them under his control, terrified that if they didn’t anything other than what he said that it would result in all of them going down.

“Because you can’t just kill someone like Ontari without consequences. And Roan would have gone down for it if they ever found her body,” Echo said calmly, but her face was still tense. “We were supposed to have each other’s backs, and he did the one thing that would destroy Roan’s life.”

“What’s the deal with you and Roan anyway?” Murphy mumbled.

“He is my best friend,” Echo snapped, and Murphy cocked his head, before narrowing his eyes at her. She was a little bit too defensive with him. After all, she now lived with Roan according to Clarke, and her biggest problem with Kane is allegedly that he hurt Roan.

Echo turned up the radio, and Murphy groaned. The news was talking about that damn Dax kid again. There was so much news coverage over his case, especially since the District Attorney was gunning for him. Personally, Murphy knew that Dax murdered both his parents. There was too much proof out there, so he didn’t really know why everyone was making this out to be the case of the century.

Murphy leaned back in his seat, looking out the window. They were basically out in the middle of nowhere, but a tiny house was slowly coming into view. He furrowed his brows, realizing this was the first house he had seen in half an hour.

Then, Echo started to pull into the driveway.

“What is this place?” Murphy asked, glancing over at Echo.

“Get out of the car,” Echo said firmly, furrowing her brows at him. He undid his seatbelt, noticing that Echo made no move to get up. “I think it’s best that you talk to her alone.”

“Echo, who is in that house?” Murphy asked, and Echo let out a sigh.

“Go,” she ordered, and Murphy opened the door, grumbling to himself as he hopped out of the car. He was pretty fucking sick of taking orders from everyone, just being expected to do whatever it was that Kane wanted.

He had better things to be doing, anyway. He figured out that his dad’s attorney abandoned the case just days before the trial, and was working on tracking down who that attorney was so he could find out why.

He knocked on the door a few times, before glancing back at Echo, who was studying him closely. She looked almost nervous, which made Murphy uncomfortable.

Then, the door flew open, and Murphy’s heart nearly stopped.

“Hi, John,” Emori said weakly, and that’s when the tears started pouring down his face.

 

_Bellamy_

 

“Bellamy, wake up,” Clarke shouted, and Bellamy sat up with a small gasp. He blinked a few times, examining the surroundings. They were in his apartment, both going through the blog on their laptops on his bed. Clarke was here, and they were both okay. “Hey, what’s going on?” she asked sweetly, her hands cupping Bellamy’s face.

“Why did you let me sleep?” he murmured, pulling away to look at the clock. He was trying to shake the nightmare he just had out of his head, the image of his mother with those hands on her throat.

“You needed a nap. Bell, you were screaming in your sleep,” Clarke said sternly, studying his face with a terrified look on her face.

“Just a nightmare,” he shook her off, rolling out of bed to grab more coffee. Of course, he heard her following after him.

“It’s the case, isn’t it?” she asked, and he bit his lip. “Reading that blog is triggering you, isn’t it?” Clarke asked, and he clenched his eyes shut.

“It’s fine,” he snapped, and Clarke closed the gap between him, looking up at him with those tender blue eyes of hers.

“It’s not fine,” Clarke argued, wrapping her arms around his waist, and he buried his face into her shoulder. “Come on, let’s climb back in bed and take a break, okay?”

He was too tired to argue with her, so he let her drag them back to his room. He crawled into bed beside her, and Clarke pulled his head so it was resting on her chest. Her fingers were combing through his hair, gently massaging his scalp.

“What is your favorite color?” Clarke asked, and he chuckled into her shirt.

“Red,” he humored her. He still felt a bit shaky, a bit rattled from his nightmare.

“Not blue?” she asked, and he shook his head. “Oh cool, just figured your favorite color would be the color of my eyes but I guess you only just kind of love me,” she teased, and he couldn’t help but smile. He curled up closer to her, and he felt her kiss the top of his head.

“Clarke, I’m honestly fine. You don’t have to do this,” he reminded her. After all, they only had a few more hours until court. They needed to get through the damn blog.

“I want to. I love you, Bell. And I want to be here for you when you’re upset,” she whispered, and he closed his eyes. He could get so comfortable here, lying in bed with his Clarke. But every morning they had to wake up, spend an entire day as if they weren’t madly in love with each other. He has to see her with that damn ring on her finger. He has to spend all day panicking about what Clarke and Echo are even up to, especially since Clarke won’t let him in on what she’s planning. They only got a few moments like this each day, even less now that Kane was taking on more difficult cases.

“I love you too, princess,” he murmured.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Clarke asked, and he shook his head. She already had listened to his graphic descriptions of what happened all those years ago, and she really didn’t need to hear it all again. “Well, I still want you to talk to me about something. Anything, really,” she continued, and he lifted his head to look up at her. She raised her eyebrows, challenging him.

“Want me to talk about how messy your outlines have been lately?” he teased, and Clarke threw her head back in a huff. “Couldn’t even read your handwriting. Maybe you should have been a doctor. That’s how bad your handwriting is.”

“Okay, it’s better than your chicken scratch,” she argued, and he bit his lip to keep from laughing. “And if my outlines are such a mess, maybe I’ll give them to someone who would appreciate them.”

“You’d give them to someone other than your boyfriend who loves you very much?” he pouted, and Clarke’s lips melted into a beautiful little smile. Then, he yawned.

“Okay, go to sleep. I’ve got this blog assignment,” Clarke huffed, and Bellamy groaned.

“I’m not even that tired, really,” he argued, pulling away, but Clarke tugged him back, wrapping her arm around him so he couldn’t move.

“You’re sleeping. That’s not a request,” she decided, and his lips twitched. But he rested his head back down on her chest.

“Okay, but you have to keep talking to me,” he mumbled.

“And what am I going to be talking about? How my boyfriend who I love very much doesn’t get enough sleep at night?” she teased, ruffling his hair as she spoke.

“Tell me about what you want,” he decided, as Clarke got comfortable in the bed. He could see that she had the blog up on her phone and was scrolling through it. “In life, I mean. Like what is your dream life?”

“Hmm,” she sighed, putting her phone down, and Bellamy closed his eyes. “I think I want to work in the public defender’s office. You know, be a lawyer for those who can’t afford one.”

Bellamy nuzzled closer into her neck, breathing in the soft smell of her shampoo. He was okay. Clarke was okay. Kane was going to find a way to get Charlotte free of the murder charges. History wouldn’t repeat itself.

“I know it’s an exhausting job, but it’s what is really needed these days, you know? And it’s what my dad really wanted to do before my grandfather pushed him a different direction,” she continued.

“Your dream life can’t be only about law,” he teased, and Clarke giggled. He could feel himself getting sleepy.

“I mean, I’d like to get married one day, maybe have some kids,” she continued. “Maybe I’d start painting again, if I had the time.”

He pressed a kiss to her neck, as Clarke’s fingers continued to card through his curls.

“I think I’d want to move out of the city, though. Maybe move to a small town somewhere. I just want something calmer, you know?”

“Am I in this dream life of yours?” Bellamy murmured.

“Do you want to be?” Clarke asked, turning her head to look at him. He glanced up at her, nodding. God, he wanted to be in her dream life, and in her real one. The more she talked about moving away, starting a small family… the more he wanted to be the person she did all of it with. “Then, yeah. I want you in my dream life,” she replied with a sweet grin, before leaning down to kiss his forehead.

He kept listening to her as she argued with herself over where specifically she’d want to move to, as she ranted about how she wasn’t going with any of her family names for kids, and as she broke down the most practical timeline for when to get married and have kids. Bellamy struggled not to snort, because _of_ _course_ Clarke had everything perfectly mapped out and planned. She seemed to have opinions on how everything was supposed to play out, leaving very little room for deviation from her plan.

By the time she started designing her dream future house, Bellamy started drifting back to sleep.

 

_Monty_

 

The second Charlotte’s principal brought up the concerning poem she wrote for her English class, Monty knew they had it. He started going through her sophomore year blog entries, vaguely remembering that this one was around the end of the fall semester.

He leaned forward, passing his phone to Kane who read over the blog entry just in time for his cross examination.

Monty leaned back in his seat, letting out a relieved breath.

“You did good,” Raven whispered, and he nodded along. At least going another night without sleep was worth it this time. Clarke was sitting on the other side of Monty, looking like she was about to pass out. Monty still didn’t know why Bellamy wasn’t here this morning, but thought better of asking about it. He had seemed pretty uncomfortable with this whole case as it was. Maybe he just needed to step away.

He got home earlier than expected, finding Harper sitting on his couch with a concerned look on her face.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, furrowing his brows at her.

“I called you last night and said I’d be here, remember?” she asked, and Monty threw his head back, trying to remember that conversation. But he was so sleep deprived and so much of last night was starting to blur together. “Babe, have you slept at all?” she asked, her brows furrowing in concern as she jumped up to close the distance between them.

“I had to do an all-nighter last night,” he sighed, and Harper threw her head back.

“You’re working yourself too hard,” she groaned, tugging him toward the couch.

“That’s just how law school is. I’m almost done,” Monty reminded her, before she pushed him to sit down.

“Is that all it is? Just normal law school stuff?” she asked, and Monty swallowed.

“Harper—”

“No, you’re always tired, you hardly talk to me. I feel like there is something going on that you’re not telling me about,” she huffed, looking incredibly flustered with him. And why wouldn’t she be? After all, he had repeatedly pushed back their wedding date and been pulling away because he couldn’t actually talk to her about what is going on.

“There are some things I can’t talk to you about,” Monty blurted out, before realizing that it was the worst thing he could tell her. There was no way she didn’t have a thousand questions now.

“Monty,” Harper sighed, gripping his face between her soft hands. He hated how she was looking at him now, like he was some fragile thing. He wanted to be able to tell her everything, to have her as the person he could unleash all his problems onto, to help support him when he feels so lost. “You can tell me anything,” she whispered, and God, he wished that were true. But he couldn’t tell her what they all did last year. He couldn’t ever tell her.

“It’s a client confidentiality thing, Harper. I legally can’t tell you what’s bothering me,” he lied, and she cocked her head to the side. And Monty let out a relieved sigh because he might have just figured out a way to explain why he’s acting like this without actually telling her. “Look, something happened last year, when I started acting weird. And I can’t tell you what it is because it’s something a client did.”

“How bad was it?” Harper asked, and Monty bit his lip.

“Just, really bad. And of course, we helped the client get away with it in court because that’s our job. But I hate that we did it, and it’s been haunting me,” he said, and Harper’s eyes softened as she thought this over.

“So, it’s not anything I did?” she asked, and Monty pressed a kiss to her cheek.

“Of course not. You’re the best thing in my life,” he reassured, pushing her hair back. “It just turns out that this life I’ve planned for myself isn’t what I wanted it to be. But I’m not talking about you when I say things like that. You’re what I’ve always wanted, and nothing is going to change that.”

“You mean that?” she asked as the tears formed in her eyes, and he nodded. He may have lied to Harper about a lot of things, but not that.

 

_Marcus_

 

He wasn’t expecting Roan to open the door. And he certainly was surprised that Echo made him invite Marcus in.

“What do you want?” Roan growled, and Marcus bit his lip.

“I want to help you two,” he said, and Echo rolled her eyes. “I have the information on Wallace you wanted,” Marcus offered, handing a folder to Echo, who looked intrigued.

“How could you possibly help us? You don’t even know what we’re doing,” Roan snapped.

“Well, I’d like to know more specifics about what you two are up to, of course. But I know for certain that whatever it is has to do with Dante Wallace,” he said, and Roan glared at Echo. “He’s a smart man who would figure out if someone was onto him.”

“Wallace might not even be a target,” Echo huffed, slipping through the folder.

“Don’t you want to hear me out?” Marcus asked, cocking his head to the side.

“No,” Echo snapped at the exact moment that Roan said yes, and then the two of them glared at each other. “You seriously want to trust him again?”

“I wouldn’t trust him with anything. But you have to admit, he occasionally has good ideas,” Roan snapped, and Echo bit her lip.

“Look, you don’t have to tell me what you’re doing with Wallace, but he needs to be distracted if you’re going to get away with whatever you’re doing,” Marcus sighed.

“And how could you possibly distract him?” Echo snorted.

“By taking on Dax as a client. The news coverage on this case is ridiculous, and there’s a lot of pressure on the DA’s office to convict the kid. With any other attorney, Wallace would get this thing done in a few weeks,” he explained with a smirk, and the realization slowly melted over Echo and Roan’s faces as they exchanged a look.

It was no secret that Dante and Marcus had a bit of a rivalry, that Marcus was the one attorney that would provoke Dante into becoming consumed with this case. Because it wouldn’t be just any murder case. It would become an opportunity for Dante to finally come out on top. This case could be in court for months, distracting him long enough for Echo, Roan, and Clarke to finish up whatever they’re up to.

“I’d want the two of you to come back, of course,” he negotiated, as Roan pulled Echo into the corner to discuss this. But he knew he had them. This plan was too good for them to turn down, and maybe he could slowly start earning their forgiveness in the process.

He knew that whatever they were doing was to help Clarke get out, and likely to figure out what happened to Wells Jaha. Marcus wasn’t stupid. He’d caught Clarke too many times going through the news articles about his death. And he could see that Echo was consumed with looking into Wallace. So whatever was happening here… it was important to all of them.

“We’ll come back, but we don’t trust you, do you understand?” Roan growled, and Marcus nodded.

“Sounds like we have a deal. I’ll see you both bright and early tomorrow,” Marcus grinned, before moving toward the door. Echo slammed the door shut as Marcus tried to open it.

“You lie to me again, and you’ll be the next dead body in that house. Understood?” she growled, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Understood,” he replied.

 

**Two Months Later**

 

_Roan_

 

He was careful as he made his way out into the hospital parking lot, pulling up his jacket hood so none of the reporters mobbing the scene took note of him.

Echo got out of her car, and Roan jogged over toward her.

“Who is it? Who else got shot?” she asked frantically, and Roan just shook his head.

“They won’t tell me. Not yet,” he huffed, and Echo buried her face into his chest. He hugged her tightly, his mind reeling after everything that happened. He hadn’t quite calmed down since finding out about the second gunshot, rattled since no one else was answering their phone. He had no idea who it could be.

As he pulled away, he saw something in the backseat of Echo’s car.

“Echo,” he murmured, pushing past her.

“It was what Marcus asked for when he called,” Echo said, and Roan’s jaw dropped. There was Dax’s body, lying on the floor of her backseat.

“Is he dead too?” Roan asked, tears forming in his eyes. Nothing about it made sense. Sure, Dax probably deserved it, but they really didn’t need another body to be worried about… especially since they had no way of knowing who the second one belonged to.

“No, drugged,” Echo replied, and Roan sucked in a deep breath. “Marcus didn’t tell me why, but I was supposed to make sure he didn’t have an alibi for tonight. Now I know why.”

“He’s framing him,” Roan realized, nodding slightly. It was kind of genius, actually. Someone else needed to take the fall for whatever the fuck happened tonight.

“He had a plan, didn’t he tell you about it?” Echo asked, and he shook his head.

“No, he made me leave,” Roan grumbled. He shouldn’t have left, he should have made Marcus tell him what the damn plan was. Because this… this was chaos.

“The second body… do you think that was also part of his plan?” Echo asked, and Roan swallowed. In his heart, he wanted to say no, that there was no way this was Marcus’ plan. He wouldn’t hurt someone else. But the truth was, Roan didn’t know what Marcus was capable of anymore. After Ontari, all bets were off.

“What are you doing with him?” Roan asked, changing the subject. He wouldn’t be able to get through tonight if he kept thinking about what Marcus was thinking and planning. He was barely together at the moment.

“Drop him off somewhere close enough to the house,” Echo said, and he nodded.

“Do it fast and get back here. All of us need to be accounted for tonight,” he ordered, and Echo nodded in response.


	19. It's Happening Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright here comes the pregnancy chapter. A good amount of feelings start to finish, Dante Wallace is being a dick, and Echo is a good friend. 
> 
> Next chapter is gonna be a lot, so enjoy the "calm" before the storm. After this chapter, I'm gonna start ramping up to the murder chapter and it's gonna get a little crazy. 
> 
> Thanks for all the love, guys! I love ya'll. And if you're in the middle of finals week, may the force be with you.

_Raven_

 

She and Murphy yanked Wallace off Clarke, and Bellamy quickly pulled Clarke away. Then, Raven felt a sharp hit to her face, throwing her backwards.

“Shit,” Murphy snapped, trying to get a better grip on Wallace as Raven shook that off… but she could taste the blood in her mouth. “Get his other arm,” Murphy ordered, and Raven quickly grabbed onto it, tugging Wallace back toward the wall of the room.

Then, a gunshot rang through the air, and Raven let go of Wallace. She felt something pull her back, not sure what it was. She didn’t look for what had a hold of her or who fired the gun. Her eyes were glued to Dante Wallace as he fell to the ground, with a soft thump.

Her knees buckled, and she felt herself falling… but something kept her up.

“Raven, Raven,” Murphy snapped, as Raven slowly turned her head to look at him. He had a panicked look on his face that Raven was all too familiar with. It was the same one all of them had when Bellamy murdered Jaha.

“It’s happening again,” Raven whispered in between sobbed. “It’s happening again.”

“Raven, breathe,” Murphy pleaded, pulling her to rest against the closest wall.

“I don’t want to do this again. I can’t do this again,” she heaved before burying her face into Murphy’s shoulder.

 

**One and a Half Months Earlier**

_Echo_

 

She checked her watch again, tapping her foot nervously on the ground. Clarke had been upstairs for too long.

Echo tried to distract herself by going over the case files the DA sent over, but she couldn’t focus. All she could think about was the panicked tone Clarke had when she asked Echo to bring pregnancy tests to the house. Echo tried rationalizing it. Clarke might just be sleep deprived, since Marcus hadn’t let them out of the house since yesterday afternoon. All the stress of this case could be messing with her hormones.

But if the first test came out negative, Clarke would have come back downstairs by now.

Then, she heard the front door slam, followed by Marcus storming into the living room. “Fucking Wallace knew what we were doing,” he growled, and Echo and Roan exchanged a concerned look. “Had an expert witness on standby to strike down the argument Bellamy came up with.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Bellamy grumbled, before getting up to head toward the kitchen.

“Roan, figure out how the fuck Wallace figured this out,” Marcus snapped, before heading toward his office. Then, he stopped, glancing around the room. “Where the hell is Griffin?”

“I’ll go get her,” Echo jumped up, figuring it would be best that she finds Clarke before anyone else in this house did. This needed to stay quiet. She nearly sprinted up the stairs, before knocking on the bathroom door.

“Be out in a second,” Clarke said through the door, her voice sounding shaky. Echo clenched her eyes shut. This wasn’t good.

“It’s me,” Echo whispered, and she heard Clarke unlock the door. She quietly stepped in, seeing Clarke sitting on the floor, her back resting against the bathtub. Echo glanced over to the bathroom counter, seeing three positive pregnancy tests in a row. She whipped her head back around to look at Clarke, who wasn’t crying anymore, but her face was red enough to tell Echo that she had been crying. “We’ll figure this out,” was all Echo could think of to say.

“I don’t know how to be a mom,” was all Clarke murmured in response, and Echo sat down on the ground across from Clarke.

“Most people don’t until they are one, or so I hear,” Echo offered, but Clarke still didn’t make eye contact.

“I know how to bury a body. I know how to blackmail. I know at least ten different ways to kill someone,” Clarke listed, leaning her head back as she shook it. “But I don’t even know the correct way to hold a baby. I’ve literally never held one.”

Echo furrowed her brows. She had never had a pregnancy scare before, or ever had a female friend that did. She didn’t have a damn clue what Clarke was feeling or thinking, meaning Echo didn’t know how to fix it. She couldn’t just fix this.

“There are people who can teach you stuff like that. Like classes, right?” Echo replied, immediately kicking herself for not being better at comforting people like Roan or Marcus were. She wasn’t who Clarke needed right now.

“And when would I take those classes? In between planning my wedding and stealing intel for the FBI?” Clarke huffed.

“Does Bellamy know that you—”

“No, not yet,” Clarke sighed. “He’ll handle it better though. He handles everything better.”

“That’s not true,” Echo argued, but she knew it was pointless. Clarke was in a place where she was going to be negative about herself, and there was very little Echo could do to stop her.

“I mean, he’ll be a great dad. He’s great at taking care of other people. But I’m—”

“You’ll be a great mom,” Echo interrupted. “If that’s what you want to do, of course,” she corrected. “But don’t make any decisions based on the idea that you wouldn’t make a great mom. I’ve seen how you take care of the others, how you helped protect Roan after Ontari was killed. You always do what you must to protect the people you love. There’s no way in hell your baby would be any different.”

Clarke blinked a few times, the tears forming in her eyes. She could see Clarke try to form an argument, but Echo stared her down, daring her to try and challenge Echo. Echo would win this fight. She had the facts on her side.

“If you’re worried about what will happen with your family because you’re pregnant, don’t. We’ll find a way around it,” Echo jumped in, seeing the question form on her face.

Clarke glanced down at the ground, looking deep in thought. Echo took in a deep breath, hearing the sound of Marcus yelling at one of the kids downstairs. It wouldn’t be long before he came upstairs looking for them, but Echo would put him back in his place. Clarke needed this time to get herself back together. 

“The engagement will be called off if they find out about what Wallace did to Wells,” Clarke finally said, and Echo cocked her head to the side, thinking this over. It could work. They finally tracked Maya Vie down, which meant they were very close to getting the answers they needed. The theory made sense. Wells went to Dante with the evidence, Dante was in on it with Jaha, Dante killed Wells to keep it quiet, and he buried the evidence. And once the Wells Jaha news got out, it wouldn’t take long for it to be linked to Jake Griffin… which would make Clarke’s family burn all connection to the Wallace’s, and likely take Dante out in the process.

“That would buy you some more time,” Echo said, accidentally gesturing to Clarke’s stomach. “Put the other research to the side so we can get your engagement called off first. Then, we can take our time. You can hide a pregnancy for a little while, and if we need more time, you can disappear for a bit.”

“It’s not like I see my family much anyway. If I just keep out of the spotlight, they might not even find out for a while,” Clarke realized, and Echo nodded along. “But I don’t know if my mother is avoidable.”

Echo clenched her jaw, thinking that over. Abby Griffin frequently popped by the house to see Clarke if she didn’t answer her phone calls. There was no way in hell that Clarke would be able to keep this secret from Abby.

“What do you want to do?” Echo asked, raising an eyebrow. “Do you trust her? Do you think you can tell her?”

“Maybe,” Clarke whispered, staring up at the ceiling with a frustrated look on her face.

 

_Murphy_

 

Yet again, Dante Wallace was a step ahead of them. If they had a client that Murphy actually liked, he wouldn’t be so pissed off. But they all _knew_ Dax killed his parents. That made the countless nights without sleep that much worse… because it wasn’t worth it. Dax wasn’t worth it.

By the time he got up the stairs to his apartment, Emori was standing outside her door, waiting for him… just like she had been doing every time he got home from Kane’s.

“I’m not in the mood,” Murphy snapped, fumbling with his keys.

“Please,” she pleaded, stepping toward him, but he didn’t look at her. She left him, she ran away. She didn’t come back, even when Murphy told her it was safe. He didn’t need to hear her long story about why she has a hard time trusting people. Not again.

“You left me,” Murphy snapped once Emori tried to grab his arm. Then, he opened his apartment door, gesturing for Emori to walk in. He had a lot to say, and he wasn’t going to say these things in the hallway where anyone could hear him. He slammed the door shut, crossing his arms as he glared at her. “I loved you, and you left. I told you it was safe, and you didn’t come back.”

“You always say it’s safe, and something bad happens every damn time,” Emori snapped, and his jaw clenched. “You say they’re not going to find Jaha’s body, and then they do. You say that Clarke took care of it, and then Ontari is threatening us. You don’t know if it’s safe!”

“If you’re so convinced that it’s not safe, why did you come back?” he growled, his eyes welling up with tears.

“Because I saw you again,” she whispered, and his eyes jerked back up to meet hers. “I couldn’t leave a second time. I won’t leave a second time,” she promised, and fuck, Murphy wanted to believe her. He wanted to rush over to her and hug her again. He was so damn tired of being alone, of missing her.

“How can I believe you?” he asked, and Emori’s face tensed up. She furrowed her brows, clearly arguing with herself about something.

Then, she gestured for him to wait as she walked back into the hallway. He leaned back against the wall, forcing himself to take a deep breath.

She strode back in, shutting the door quietly behind her. She held something out for him, and Murphy almost didn’t believe his eyes when he saw it.

But there it was… Wells Jaha’s phone. The one Emori was supposed to destroy, the one that she had been lying about. He took it from her hesitant hand, raising an eyebrow at her.

“Destroy it. I trust you,” she said shakily, and Murphy clenched his eyes shut. He knew that Emori hadn’t destroyed it. Why would she? It was her only leverage if they all went down. And she just handed it over to Murphy.

When he opened his eyes, her eyes were tearing up. He knew what this meant to her, how hard it was for her to trust him with this.

“You’re okay. Come here,” Murphy whispered, extending his arms toward her. Emori closed the gap, burying her face into his chest. “I’ve got you,” he murmured as Emori heaved into his shirt.

 

_Clarke_

 

Echo met her as she got out of her car, with a curious look on her face. Clarke glanced back at Kane’s house, not seeing any of the others peering in through the windows.

“How did it go?” she asked, and Clarke bit her lip.

“Maya doesn’t have anything that proves what Wells and Dante discussed,” Clarke sighed.

“But she knows what happened, doesn’t she?” Echo asked with a small smirk, and Clarke nodded. The poor girl was terrified to be talking to Clarke about it, begging Clarke not to tell anyone that she was talking to her.

“Dante destroyed all the evidence Wells gave him, but he was at an event all night. He didn’t actually kill Wells,” Clarke huffed. “And he didn’t make any phone calls the rest of the day, according to what Lincoln got me. Maya told me the only person Dante met with the whole day was Cage.”

“There are lots of ways to order a hit. You just don’t know what to look for. Don’t worry. I’ll figure out how he did it,” Echo reassured, and Clarke took in a deep breath. “Speaking of your fiancé though, he’s here,” she warned, and Clarke pushed past her, darting toward the house. Echo should have fucking opened with that.

When Clarke opened the door, Cage was leaning against the staircase having a casual conversation with Roan, and Clarke felt like she was going to throw up… which was becoming all too common these days.

“Clarke, did you have any luck with that lead?” Roan said smoothly, cueing Clarke into what story they offered her fiancé.

“No, but I got an idea for another,” Clarke replied, before leaning in to hug Cage. “What’s up? You never visit me at work.”

“Well, you missed our catering appointment and I was worried,” Cage replied coolly, raising an eyebrow. Roan dismissed himself from the conversation, rushing back into the living room. Clarke glanced over at the others, specifically avoiding Bellamy’s concerned gaze. For the past few days, she had been avoiding him. It was easy enough to explain away, especially with this case. But the truth was that she had no idea how to tell him that she was pregnant.

“I told you we needed to reschedule because of the case,” Clarke replied. Then, Cage gestured with his head for them to step outside, right as Echo came into the house.

Clarke walked out onto the front porch, bracing herself for whatever temper tantrum Cage had ready for her today.

“Why are you working this case?” Cage growled, and Clarke crossed her arms.

“Because this is my job,” she replied, raising an eyebrow.

“I told you I could get you an internship at the Ark, far away from cases that would put you head to head with my father,” he snapped.

“Your father and I talked about me having this job, and he is fine with it. Why aren’t you?” Clarke asked, furrowing her brows.

“Because I don’t buy for a second that you helping him out last time was out of the goodness of your heart. I know you, Clarke. You’re always up to something,” he accused, and Clarke’s lips melted into a smirk.

“And what would I be up to, exactly? Because what you’re accusing me of sounds like me throwing away the best resource I have for getting employed in the future,” she replied, and Cage stepped back, glancing into the window of the house. “So, did you just come over here to yell at me or do you have opinions on centerpieces?”

“You know I don’t give a shit about any of that,” he huffed, crossing his arms.

“Good, then I say we go with the simple flower arrangement we saw at that place downtown. It just screams _us_ , you know?” Clarke smirked, brushing past him.

“Agreed,” he muttered. “You better have tomorrow night off. They want to see our happily-in-love faces at that fundraiser,” he groaned, jogging down the porch steps.

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Clarke muttered, before walking back into the house. As she walked back into the living room, she felt Bellamy’s concerned eyes on her. She gave him a slight nod, trying to reassure him that she’s completely fine. But he saw through her, of course. It was hard for him not to.

She had been a nervous wreck for days, holding in a secret that was killing her. Only Echo knew. While Echo had managed to say a lot of the right things, she wasn’t the person Clarke needed to talk this over with. She needed to talk to Bellamy, to see what he wanted and what he thought.

But she was terrified. She knew Bellamy loved her and that he wanted a future with her, but she was pretty sure he didn’t want that future right now… not in the middle of everything else going on.

And he had left before when things got too crazy. He told her over and over again that he wouldn’t make that mistake again, that he was in this… but maybe this would be just too much. Maybe he’d go running again, decide that a life with Clarke wasn’t what he wanted anymore.

 

_Roan_

 

Wallace was kicking their ass in court. And no one was getting any closer to figuring out how.

Roan had made the mistake of accusing Clarke when discussing this with Echo, which quickly earned a slap right across the face. Plus, Clarke seemed to have too many other things going on to worry about. She probably didn’t have the time nor the energy to leak information to Dante.

“I mean, maybe he just knows all my tricks now,” Marcus huffed, and Roan rolled his eyes.

“You don’t even know all your tricks,” he replied, before walking back out into the living room, seeing the box after box of evidence that the DA had sent over.

“Dude, we don’t even know where the damn murder weapon is,” Bellamy huffed, throwing his pen right at Monty.

“Okay, I don’t see you coming up with any good ideas,” Monty snapped.

“Already did. Two, in fact. Time for someone else to step up with something clever,” he groaned, and Roan furrowed his brows. Bellamy was sitting in that exact spot both times he came up with a new argument idea, announcing it to the entire room. Neither of them were obvious enough for Wallace to prepare for. All this time spent with Clarke had improved Bellamy’s ability to think outside the box.

Wallace might know all of Marcus’ tricks… but he didn’t know these kids’ tricks yet. There was just _no way_ he’d be able to predict each of their ideas this well.

Then, it clicked.

He rushed over to his bag, pulling out his notepad and a pen. He walked back into the living room, holding up a piece of paper with the words _follow me_ on it. The kids followed him out toward the porch, not making a damn sound, and Marcus followed them as well, curious about what Roan figured out.

“The house has been bugged,” Roan said, and the entire group’s eyes widened. “There is a bug somewhere in the evidence that Wallace sent over. That’s how he keeps beating us.”

“We have to find that bug,” Raven snapped, and the others grumbled in agreement.

“No,” Marcus finally said, and Roan raised an eyebrow at him. “Wallace doesn’t know that we know about the bug. Which means we can use it to our advantage.”

“Wait, what are you about to do?” Echo asked as Marcus moved toward the door.

“What I do best: lie,” he smirked, and gestured for everyone to follow after him. Then, Roan figured out where Marcus was going with this.

Everyone shuffled back into the house as Marcus stood in the dead center of the living room, clearly making sure that the bug picked up whatever trick he had up his sleeve.

“Roan, we have a problem,” Marcus huffed, gesturing for Roan to come into the living room.

“What’s wrong?” Roan asked as casually as he could, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

“I figured out where the gun was hidden. Turns out, there’s a board in Dax’s house that he hides things under,” Marcus lied, and Roan couldn’t help but grin. Wallace would fall for this easily, getting a warrant to search that damn house and find _nothing_. He and Echo did a huge sweep of that house weeks ago, and it was spotless.

 

_Marcus_

 

Dax looked genuinely terrified as the police stormed his house, tearing through everything to find that damn gun. Marcus patted him on the back, reassuring him that everything was going to be okay.

“There is nothing to find, correct?” Marcus asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Of course not. I’m innocent,” Dax said through gritted teeth, and Marcus didn’t believe that he was innocent for a second.

His phone went off, and he glanced down to see a text from Echo revealing that they located the bug and had it in a safe place.

“Wait here, and talk to no one,” Marcus warned, before walking toward the front door where Dante Wallace was waiting impatiently. “A word?” Marcus asked, and Wallace gestured for the officer next to him to give them some space.

“Kane, I’m not in the mood,” he snapped, and Marcus’ lips twitched into a smirk.

“Will you be in the mood after they find absolutely nothing?” he teased.

“I have probable cause,” he replied coolly.

“Right, probable cause. From that bug you put in my house, right?” Marcus asked, and Wallace’s face faltered. “Don’t try denying it. My associate already located it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Wallace murmured, not even looking at Marcus.

“Sir, we’ve searched this entire house. There is no gun,” an officer interrupted, and Wallace nodded.

“Here is what will happen: you’re going to undo all the bullshit you threw at me this week. I don’t care how,” Marcus growled, and Wallace furrowed his brows. “I want that expert testimony struck from the record and for you to pull that neighbor from your witness list. I want a fair fight.”

“Why the hell would I agree to that? I’d be throwing away my own case,” Wallace snapped.

“Because I have the bug. And I could do a lot of damage to your career and your run for Attorney General with it. But I don’t want to ruin your life, Dante. I just want a fair and speedy trial for my innocent client,” Marcus smirked, tucking his hands into his pockets.

Wallace’s jaw clenched as he thought this over, but Marcus knew he had him.

 

_Bellamy_

 

When Clarke walked into his apartment, Bellamy’s stomach dropped. She had been acting strangely all week, dodging him at every turn. And now, she had that same look on her face, and Bellamy had the worst feeling about it.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Bellamy asked, as Clarke tugged off her jacket.

“Nothing,” she mumbled, and Bellamy bit his lip. He had been racking his brain for days trying to figure out what changed. They were doing fine… more than fine, actually. For a while, things felt completely normal. When they were alone in his apartment, it felt like they had been together for years, and not at all like Clarke was forcibly engaged to someone else and this was the only place where they could let their guard down.

“Clarke, you’ve been avoiding me,” Bellamy pointed out, and her eyes flickered up to his. Within seconds, he could see her holding back tears. “Hey, it’s okay. We’re okay,” he murmured, cupping her face between his hands. “What’s going on, princess?”

Then, she just broke into a sob, burying her face into his chest. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Mentally, he started making a list of everything that could be going wrong. Her grandfather could have ordered her to do something awful, or her wedding got moved up, or she got in a fight with her mother. Or _somehow_ Cage found out about the two of them sneaking around.

Bellamy stomach dropped as he tightened his grip around her. “I know you’re upset, but I need you to talk to me,” he begged, and Clarke pulled her head back, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she murmured, shaking her head, and Bellamy gripped her face again. She looked so terrified and worried. He ran his thumbs back and forth on her cheeks, trying to reassure her. “I have to tell you something, but I don’t know how you’re going to react. But I also don’t know how I want you to react, and just _fuck_ ,” she whispered as her shaky hands covered his. He stepped toward her, pushing a strand of her hair behind her ear.

“Just tell me. We can figure it out, remember?” he reassured as she worried her lip. Then, she pulled away, marching into the living room. “Clarke,” he huffed, chasing after her. He grabbed her wrist, pulling her back to him.

“What’s your dream life?” she asked, her blue eyes boring up at his.

“What?”

“You asked me about mine. What’s yours?” she repeated, and Bellamy took a deep breath. “Am I in it?”

“Of course,” he reassured, stepping toward her so he could wrap his arms around her. She heaved into his chest, and he rested his head on top of hers… trying to make sense of Clarke’s sudden franticness. He had never seen her this rattled, including the night he murdered Jaha. “I don’t know. I guess it’s me working as a defense attorney somewhere. And I’d be with you.”

“That’s it?” Clarke asked, her head popping up to look at him. “Nothing else?”

“Okay, there’s more to it. I was just trying to give you the cliff notes so you would just tell me what’s wrong,” he said, leaning down to rest his forehead against hers. He closed his eyes, thinking this over. He couldn’t figure out what it was that Clarke was searching for… clearly, she wanted a clue as to how Bellamy would react before she told him. But this would go a lot faster if she just told him and dealt with his reaction to whatever it was. “Um, we’d probably be married, get a house somewhere, kids eventually, at least two dogs if I’m being honest… I’d want to live close enough to Octavia, but she’s all over the place so I’m willing to give on that one.”

“That’s your dream life?” Clarke confirmed, and Bellamy pulled away slightly to get a better look at her. The crying had slowed down, and she seemed more focused… less on edge. Clearly, he said something to pass whatever test this was.

“Absolutely,” he replied. “Princess, what’s going on? You can tell me anything.”

She immediately looked down at the ground, her forehead scrunching up like it always did when she was thinking too hard. He leaned forward, pressing a kiss to her forehead. He tried to act calm and relaxed… but he was still freaking out. Clarke, his stoic and confident girlfriend, was a mess over whatever it was she had to tell him… and that meant it was big.

She looked back up at him with those wide blue eyes, and Bellamy bit his lip. “I’m pregnant,” she whispered.

His eyes immediately dropped to her stomach, his mind picturing Clarke with a baby. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t pictured it before… what it would be like to have a family with her. It was his go-to image whenever he was struggling to fall asleep at night, actually. It was how he distracted himself after waking up from his nightmares. He’d just curl up closer to Clarke and think about a day in the future when everything was more settled… when the ring on her finger was one he got her and they were arguing about how to decorate a nursery.

Bellamy’s life had never been stable. He never thought it would be. But with Clarke… he could just see everything falling together so perfectly. And he wanted it so badly.

His immediate reaction to her pregnancy was excitement… until he realized how unstable things really were. Then, all the realities of their situation crashed back into him.

“How do you feel?” Bellamy asked, searching her eyes. “What are you thinking?” He cupped her face between his hands, stroking her cheeks with his thumbs again.

“I don’t know,” she murmured, her eyes downcast. “When I first saw the result, I was really happy,” she confessed, and Bellamy’s chest warmed. “I mean, I love you. I want us to have a family. And when I found out about the baby…” she trailed off with a ghost of a smile on her face. She had the same initial reaction that he did.

“Then, you started remembering everything else,” Bellamy guessed, and she started nodding. Her tears started flowing again, and Bellamy could feel a few tears escape his eyes as well. He pressed a slow kiss to her lips, and her hands rested over his. “I love you, Clarke. I’m with you, no matter what,” he reassured, looking right into her eyes as he spoke. “What do you want to do?”

“Honestly?” she whispered, looking up at him, and he nodded. “I want to have our baby,” she confessed, and Bellamy held his breath. He loved the sound of _our baby_. “I know that this is literally the worst time for something like this, but I’ve thought it through. It’s doable. Although, you won’t like the backup plan,” Clarke rambled, and Bellamy knew what that meant: the backup plan was to run. “I don’t know. If I’m being stupid and reckless, tell me. What do you want to do?”

“Okay, what we want and what we should do might not be the same thing, Clarke,” he pointed out, and she did that huff she always did when he went a little too law school on her. “If we are purely talking about wants, then I _want_ our baby, so damn much,” he reassured, before pressing a kiss to her forehead. “But we need to go over this plan of yours in detail. If we’re doing this, I need you to be completely safe, okay?”

Over the next few hours, they made plans, diagrams, backup plans, potential scenarios. They debated over the timeline and probabilities.

By three a.m., they had run out of potential things that could go wrong. There was a plan to start putting away funds in case they had to disappear, along with a separate fund for Octavia in the event that Bellamy had to run off. The scariest scenario either of them could come up with… well, they found a livable solution to.

“We’re gonna be a family, aren’t we?” he asked with a small smirk, snaking his arm around Clarke.

“We’ve been a family, Bell,” Clarke corrected, which left Bellamy speechless. So, he leaned down to kiss her cheek.

“Are you sure you want this?” he asked for the thousandth time.

“Yeah,” Clarke said with a soft smile, looking up at him with so much love in those gorgeous eyes of hers. “Do you?” He nodded, before tilting her chin up. He crashed his lips into hers, and she melted into him immediately.

“I love you so much, Clarke,” he said seriously, and Clarke moved so she was now up in his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“I love you too, Bell,” she replied with a huge grin, and he pulled her tighter against his chest, peppering kisses all over her face.

They would figure this out. They would be okay. They always found a way.

Bellamy had his family in his arms. He wasn’t going to let anything happen to them.

 

**One and a Half Months Later**

 

_Monty_

 

“It’s on the news,” Raven said shakily, turning on the tv in his apartment. He immediately jerked the remote out of her hand, turning the volume down. They needed to be careful.

He glanced up at the screen, seeing shots of Kane’s house as the police pulled Wallace’s body out on the gurney.

“Kane said he had a plan. We’re going to be fine,” Monty reassured, patting Raven’s shoulder. Then, he walked back toward his kitchen, eager to get something to drink after the night they had.

“Monty,” Raven called out, and he came running back in. On the screen, he saw a second unrecognizable body being pulled from the house, and his stomach dropped. “What happened after we left?” she asked, tugging his arm frantically.

He immediately grabbed his phone, before remembering that he couldn’t actually call anyone. Every phone call could be used against them, even if he and Raven didn’t do a damn thing that night… once again.

“Maybe Dax came to the house. Made good on his threats,” he suggested, but he knew that wasn’t likely.

“I can’t do this again,” Raven whispered, and Monty nodded. He didn’t want to do this again either. But if one of them went down, they all went down.

“Wallace attacked Clarke, Raven. There wasn’t a choice,” he sighed, although there was a choice. And they made the wrong one all over again.


	20. Did You Kill Wells?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a shorter chapter (compared to other chapters in this fic, it's still like 4.5k sooo) but the drama is packed in tight. A big bad thing happens (that you can probably guess by reading the title), and one of our babies hard core snaps. You'll see what I mean. Also, graphic violence warning chapter for this chapter (it's not that bad all things considered, but figured I'd warn you just in case). 
> 
> Anyway, thanks for all the feedback. Love you guys! We're getting closer to figuring out what happened on the super ominous shady night. I look forward to hearing theories... because I bet you guys are going to start figuring out what happens after this update.

_Marcus_

 

“I don’t want to do this again. I can’t do this again,” he could hear Raven murmur, her voice muffled against Murphy’s shirt.

Marcus clenched his eyes shut, trying to think this through. But his thoughts were too messy. He couldn’t fucking think.

“Breathe. Hey, we’re okay,” he heard Bellamy say, and he looked over to see a hyperventilating Clarke wrapped up in Bellamy’s arms.

“No, don’t move,” Roan shouted, and Marcus glanced over at Murphy and Raven who were frozen in fear. “You can’t step in the blood. We need to tamper with this as little as possible,” he explained calmly, and Marcus nodded along. At least someone had their head on straight.

“Who cares if they step in the blood? We’re just going to have to get rid of the body and clean up the blood anyway,” Murphy snapped, and Marcus’ jaw clenched. That wouldn’t work this time. No, there was a gunshot. Someone could have heard it. And it was _Dante Wallace_. An upstanding District Attorney doesn’t just disappear.

“Everyone take a damn breath,” Roan growled, and Marcus clenched his eyes shut. This couldn’t be happening. Not again. There was no way they’d all get lucky again.

“We don’t have time to take a breath,” Monty snapped.

“No, we need to think this through so we don’t make the wrong decision,” Bellamy huffed.

“Like we did when we helped you?” Raven spat.

Marcus looked down at the ground, seeing where the gun had fallen. He crouched down to pick it up, realizing that no matter what they did, the gun had to go.

“It’s been a year. Let it go,” Roan snapped.

“This is the exact same nightmare all over again, except this time it was Wallace who attacked Clarke, and he got shot instead of bludgeoned to death,” Murphy growled.

“Everyone quiet!” Marcus shouted, holding the gun so everyone could see him. Everyone’s pale faces turned to look at him, and Roan’s hand started to creep back to reach for his gun. Marcus lowered his gun, reassuring Roan that he wasn’t threatening anyone. He was just trying to get their attention. “I’ve got this. All of you just need to take a breath and give me a moment to think,” he said calmly, as the kids all exchanged panicked looks.

 

**Three Weeks Earlier**

 

_Roan_

 

Echo was obsessively checking her phone, which put Roan on edge. He knew that Echo had been anxious about Clarke’s meet up with Maya, especially since they were so close to figuring out exactly what happened the night Wells was killed.

But Clarke wasn’t due to check in for at least another hour. So, everything was fine, and that’s what he kept telling Echo.

“I mean, I feel like the adoption argument would work for him. You know, a poor kid taken in by such a rich family. He’d feel grateful, not murderous,” Raven suggested, which jerked Roan back into the discussion in the living room.

“It’s too easy for Wallace to spin that around. Poor kid from an urban neighborhood, probably prone to violence due to instability in his first home… stuff like that,” Bellamy huffed, keeping his eyes glued to his laptop.

“They probably put him in therapy early on, though. Maybe we could track down the therapist and they could testify that Dax doesn’t have violent tendencies,” Monty suggested, and Roan leaned his head back and thought that over. It could work, provided it was somehow true.

He let out a groan, before walking into the kitchen to grab some more coffee. It was going to be yet another late night at Marcus’ house, after all.

“We have a problem,” Echo said, marching into the kitchen, and Roan threw his head back. He was tired of everyone having problems. Couldn’t they go one week where nothing horrible happened? “Maya never showed up,” she explained, and Roan bit his lip. There were hundreds of explanations for why that could have happened. Most likely, the girl got scared.

“Echo,” Roan sighed, putting his hands on her shoulders as he looked her right in the eye. “Everything is going to be fine. A little bump in the road doesn’t mean disaster.” After all, Echo and Clarke had hammered out a good plan. Clarke and Bellamy had a million contingency plans. And Roan was the voice of reason when the other three were being ridiculous. If anyone could pull this off, it was them.

“But—”

“No,” Roan interrupted, wagging a finger at her. “If Clarke actually says she’s in trouble, that’s one thing. But we’re not going to turn something into trouble when it could be nothing. I don’t want to spend my whole life paranoid, do you?”

 

_Clarke_

 

Maya’s phone had been disconnected… which meant Clarke had no way to reach the girl.

She decided to drive to her apartment before heading over to Kane’s, figuring she needed a few minutes to calm down before she got thrown back into the murder case from hell. When she stepped into her apartment, her lights were already on.

“Clarke, is that you?” she heard Cage say, and she blinked a few times in confusion. He never came to her apartment, and he certainly didn’t have a key.

“What are you doing here?” Clarke asked as she stormed into the living room, where he was just making himself at home.

“Waiting for you to get home so we can have a talk,” he said with a terrifying grin, and Clarke had a horrible feeling settle in her stomach. “You look upset,” he mused, cocking his head to the side. “Can’t find Maya Vie, can you?”

“What?” Clarke snapped, furrowing her brows in confusion. How the hell did he know she was in contact with Maya? Clarke had been careful, doing everything Echo taught her. She knew how to not get caught. Then, Cage gestured to the other side of the room, and Clarke turned around. She nearly collapsed where she stood, but Cage caught her, tightening his grip around her body… as Clarke took in the sight of Maya Vie’s dead body lying on her hardwood floor.

“Shh, everything is okay,” Cage whispered as Clarke tried to pull out of his grasp. “Stop,” he warned, his hand resting threateningly on her neck. She started hyperventilating, panicked because the message was clear: Cage killed her.

Her entire body shuddered as the guilt washed over her. Maya was a _good_ person. She had never hurt another soul in her life. Her only crime was that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, learned the wrong thing. And Clarke just had to drag her back into it, endangering yet another person’s life.

Her mind flashed back to when she first found Lexa, blood seeping out onto the carpet from the gunshot wound. Then, she thought about when she and her mother got brought in to identify her father’s body. She then pictured Wells, lying out on the examiner’s table. And she broke into a sob.

“Shh, you’re okay, Clarke. I’m not going to hurt you,” Cage whispered, but Clarke could still feel his hand around her throat… warning her that he could hurt her if he wanted to. “I didn’t want to hurt Maya, but you just couldn’t stop looking into things that were better left alone,” he said in such a terrifyingly sweet tone. “Now, tell me this isn’t a lesson you’re going to have to learn for a second time,” he growled.

She shook her head slowly, but her mind was racing. There was no reason Cage should have figured out what Clarke was doing… unless he knew what to watch for. She blinked a few times, looking up at him.

Clarke wasn’t sure why it didn’t click sooner. After all, she and Echo couldn’t find any trace of Dante ordering a hit. He didn’t make any communication to anyone out of his office, and the _only_ person to see him that day was his son.

“Did you kill Wells?” Clarke asked as she pulled away from him, backing into the wall.

“I know he was your friend. But he broke the rules too,” Cage huffed, walking over toward Maya’s body.

She was engaged to Wells’ _murderer_. That same _murderer_ just killed an innocent person to send Clarke a message. And the message is clear: he’ll kill whoever it takes to keep Clarke in line. She clenched her eyes shut, thinking of Bellamy, of their baby, of Echo, of Roan, of her mom… Cage was a monster capable of hurting all of them just to punish Clarke.

She sucked in a shaky breath, and Cage glanced back over at her with a distant expression on his face.

“For someone who literally bashed in Thelonious Jaha’s head, I thought you’d be more used to this,” he observed, gesturing to Maya. Sometimes, Clarke forgot that she wasn’t actually a murderer, that she had never taken someone’s life. She came close with Jaha, but it was Bellamy who actually did it. “Tell you what: I’ll take care of this one. We’ll get rid of the next body together,” he smirked, and Clarke’s stomach dropped at how flippantly he just said _the next body_.

Her worst-case scenario was always that the plan would fail, and somehow, she’d end up trapped with Cage Wallace for the rest of her life.

And here she was. Her plan just failed. There was no one left alive who could prove what happened to Wells Jaha. Clarke knew the truth, but it didn’t mean a damn thing. His murderer made sure that Clarke couldn’t do a damn thing about it. And if she tried? Well, the body count would only grow.

She clenched her eyes shut, visualizing how spectacularly everything would crash and burn around her. Cage would find out about her pregnancy, and immediately take Bellamy out. And Clarke and her unborn baby would be next. Her family’s protection wouldn’t mean a damn thing, especially since Cage would figure out how to make it look like someone else did it.

Clarke couldn’t let that happen.

“If it makes you feel any better, Wells didn’t suffer. He didn’t feel any pain,” he offered, and Clarke slid closer to her coat closet. She opened it quietly, reaching for the bat Wells jokingly bought her when she first moved into her own apartment for “protection.”

“What about Maya?” Clarke asked.

“She didn’t feel any pain either. I’m not a monster,” he huffed, and any hesitation Clarke had felt went out the window. She tightened her grip around the bat, slowly walking up to Cage, whose back was turned as he started dragging Maya’s body around the couch.

That’s when Clarke struck the first time, knocking him to the ground. When he tried to push himself back home, she slammed the bat into his skull.

 

_Monty_

 

“We have a problem,” Raven announced, dropping a stack of papers onto the coffee table.

“Then, find me a solution,” Kane growled, crossing his arms.

“Luna hacked Dax’s computer. You need to look through his search history,” Raven snapped, and Monty immediately lunged forward, grabbing the first few papers. Dax had been researching various methods of body disposal, the types of cuts that would cause less blood spill.

“How has the DA not found this?” Bellamy huffed, leaning over to look over Monty’s shoulder.

“He might as well have googled how to get away with murder,” Murphy huffed, and Monty glanced up at Kane, who had a conflicted look on his face.

“You can’t be serious about us keeping him as a client,” Monty challenged, and a scowl formed on Kane’s face. “He’s a murderer. We all know he did it. He has all but confessed.”

“Last year none of you cared that our clients were murderers,” Kane snapped back.

“Some of us did,” Raven replied, raising an eyebrow.

“But you were professional about it and did your damn jobs,” he growled. “I don’t know what changed to make all of you feel like who we take on as clients is somehow up for negotiation.”

“You know what changed!” Murphy yelled, and Kane literally jumped.

“Bellamy!” Monty heard Echo yell, before Echo and Roan stormed into the living room, tugging on their jackets frantically. “Come with us,” she ordered, with an almost panicked look in her eyes, and Bellamy immediately jumped up, rushing over to them.

“Where do you think you three are going?” Kane snapped, as the three of them rushed toward the door in a huff. Kane jogged after them, clearly pissed that he didn’t have the grip on everyone that he used to have.

“What the fuck?” Raven whispered with wide eyes, and Monty just shrugged.

 

_Echo_

 

None of them bothered to wait for the elevator. No, they sprinted up the stairs toward Clarke’s apartment.

Bellamy shoved past Echo to run and grab Clarke, who was sitting on the floor, covered in blood with a strange expression on her face. As Echo made her way inside, she saw it. There was Cage’s body, looking like a mugging gone wrong. Then, she noticed Maya’s body, and realized what happened.

“Did he hurt you?” she heard Bellamy ask, and she glanced over at Clarke again. Echo let out a sigh of relief, realizing that none of that blood belonged to Clarke.

“Go get her cleaned up,” Echo ordered, and Bellamy started trying to pull Clarke up to her feet. Roan stepped up toward her, pulling a trash bag out of one of the containers he found in her kitchen. “Do you want the head or the feet?” Echo asked, and even in this tense atmosphere, Roan found the spare second to roll his eyes at her.

They got Maya’s body out first, since it would go in the very back of the trunk so they could take care of her after Cage. When they came back for Cage, she could hear the shower running in Clarke’s bathroom. Bellamy was fast at work cleaning the blood off the ground.

“How is she?” Echo asked, and Bellamy’s jaw clenched.

“Cage killed Wells,” Bellamy replied, and Echo’s brows furrowed. How had they not considered that? “She’s a wreck. But she didn’t get hurt,” Bellamy explained shakily, and Echo leaned forward to pat his shoulder, not sure how else to comfort him. She remembered how panicked he was in the car ride over, freaking out about Clarke and the baby, hyperventilating to the point that Roan had to talk him down.

“Hey, we are going to take care of the bodies. She needs to stay here and act surprised when she gets the phone call about Cage,” Roan explained calmly, crouching down next to Bellamy. Bellamy’s head shook slightly, and Roan glanced up at Echo, pleading with her to say something… anything. But making people feel better was never Echo’s specialty.

“Clarke is tough. This isn’t her first time around. She’ll recover,” Echo reassured, and Bellamy furrowed his brows at her.

“Yeah, it is. She didn’t kill Jaha. I did,” Bellamy snapped, the panic rising in his voice. Echo glanced over at Roan, watching him work through the same thing she was.

“She lied so we wouldn’t turn on you,” Roan huffed, throwing his head back, and Echo bit her lip. Of course, Clarke did. And she never bothered to correct them with the truth. Honestly, Echo felt dumb for not ever suspecting it.

“She’s panicking, and I don’t know how to fix it,” Bellamy murmured, his shaky hands going back to dabbing the blood on the ground, and Echo crouched down on the other side of him, resting her hand on his shoulder.

“Clarke and the baby will be fine as long as she stays relatively calm,” Echo said slowly, and Bellamy slowly turned to look at her. “Whatever you say to her will be enough to calm her down. You always calm her down. You’ve got this.”

“And we’ve got this,” Roan jumped in, gesturing to Cage’s body just inches away.

After a few more minutes, Bellamy’s head was on straight again, and Echo and Roan lugged Cage down to her car. She had given Bellamy instructions on how to clean the apartment and pointed out the problem areas that he might potentially miss but that police would check for. Of course, it wouldn’t come to that.

When she and Roan got back into her car, Echo rested her head on the steering wheel for just a moment, processing everything that just happened. Then, she felt Roan grab her hand, and she squeezed it.

“There’s a bar on the far side of town that has basically no surveillance and muggings happen there all the time,” he offered, and Echo nodded. It wasn’t unlike Cage to end up in questionable places, and he certainly looked like someone had beaten the shit out of him. “And if we run out of time, we can drop Maya into the storage unit until we think of something better to do with her.”

“She was a good person,” Echo whispered, shaking her head. “She has a family that will worry about her. And we’re just going to make her disappear,” she continued, feeling her eyes start to water. She rubbed her eyes quickly with her sleeve, before pulling the car into reverse.

“This wasn’t your fault,” Roan reassured, and Echo bit her lip. She _knew_ that. Echo had been doing the right thing. She picked a noble cause with helping Clarke, and she was finally doing _good_ for someone else… and it didn’t seem to matter. The dead bodies seemed to turn up wherever Echo went.

 

_Murphy_

 

“Not a great time,” Kane huffed, gesturing to the phone in his hand. Murphy knew Kane was freaked out about Roan, Echo, and Bellamy taking off like that, especially with their panicked expressions… but Murphy was so fucking tired. It was the middle of the night and the rest of them were still trapped at this house, forced to work on a case for a psychopath who literally murdered his own two parents for the inheritance money.

“I don’t care,” Murphy snapped, and he could hear that Kane hit the voicemail again, before he hung up. “What the hell are we doing here, Kane?”

“We are trying to come up with something before court tomorrow, Mr. Murphy. Also known as doing your damn job,” Kane snapped, leaning back with crossed arms.

“How did you get like this?” Murphy asked in disbelief, shaking his head. “I mean, you’re the best defense attorney in the state. You could be using your talents to help actual innocent people. And instead, you’re bending over backwards to help someone get off of a double-homicide charge just so you could what? Go head-to-head with the DA again?” he huffed.

“Murphy, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kane replied, clenching his jaw as he spoke.

“No, I think I do. Innocent people get convicted all the time just because they couldn’t afford a lawyer like you. Was this what you wanted when you decided to become a lawyer? To help the wealthy murderers and leave the people who actually need your help to get convicted or take ridiculous plea deals?”

“Sometimes, you have to take on cases you aren’t okay with. That’s just how this all works,” Kane said through gritted teeth, and Murphy let out a huff, before storming back into the living room.

“You okay?” Raven asked, as Murphy packed up his things.

“Just great,” he muttered.

“Where are you going?” Kane asked, walking into the living room.

“I haven’t slept. I’m going home,” Murphy growled, before storming down the hallway.

 

_Bellamy_

 

He softly knocked on the bathroom door, and Clarke hummed in response. The shower had stopped minutes ago, but she hadn’t come out yet… and well, he was worried.

He opened the door, seeing Clarke curled up on the ground, wrapped up in a towel as she leaned back against the tub. She was still crying as she pushed her damp hair out of her face.

“You’re okay,” he whispered as he sat down next to her, and Clarke squirmed into his lap, burying her face into his chest. “It’s all over. I’m here now. Everything is okay,” he murmured, running his fingers through her hair.

When Echo first stormed into the living room, Bellamy knew it had to be bad. But he was so relieved when he got to Clarke’s apartment, seeing her breathing and okay. Considering the other direction the night could have gone… Bellamy was overwhelmingly relieved. His family is okay, safe in his arms. Sure, a bit rattled… but okay.

“It had to be done,” Bellamy murmured, before pressing a kiss to the top of Clarke’s head.

“I know,” Clarke replied, her head finally popping up, and Bellamy started wiping the tears from her cheeks. “I’m glad he’s dead,” she said, and Bellamy nodded along. He felt something very similar the night he killed Jaha. “But Maya, she…” Clarke trailed off, and Bellamy pressed his forehead into hers. He knew what she was going to say. Maya didn’t deserve what Cage did to her, and Clarke felt like it was her fault.

“You didn’t hurt Maya. Cage did. There was no way you could have known,” he reassured.

“I should have. The signs were all there,” Clarke snapped, shaking her head, and Bellamy cupped her face between his hands.

“It’s not your fault.”

“Yes, it is,” Clarke argued.

“No,” he said sternly, practically daring her to try and pin this all on herself. “If you need forgiveness, I’ll give you that. You’re forgiven,” he reassured, and Clarke buried her face into his neck, breaking into a small sob. He wrapped his arms tightly around her back, pressing kisses to the top of her head. At least she wasn’t hyperventilating like she was when he found her. She was slowly getting better.

After a few minutes, Bellamy convinced Clarke to get off the bathroom floor. He found one of his t-shirts that he stuck in the back of her closet, and handed it to her. She loved wearing his shirts, and there was a soft smile on her face as she tugged it on. He _loved_ that soft smile.

Clarke started to get into bed, and Bellamy walked back into the living room, making sure he didn’t miss anything. He put the deadbolt in the front door, before turning out all the lights. He did okay. And Echo and Roan were taking care of the hard part. Everything was going to be okay.

When he came back in the bedroom, he started tugging his shoes off. Clarke was already under the covers, waiting for him. By the time he undressed and climbed in, Clarke was curling up into his side, resting her head on his chest.

“Everything is okay,” he reassured, and Clarke nodded into his chest. “How are you feeling?”

“Better. Not great, but better,” she whispered, and he nodded. They settled into a comfortable silence, as Bellamy’s hand stroked up and down Clarke’s stomach.

“I don’t want anything to happen to you,” Clarke finally said, and Bellamy’s head snapped in her direction.

“What?”

“Just… Lexa, my dad, Wells, Maya…” she started to list, and Bellamy could see the panic dance across her features again. “I just couldn’t survive it if anything happened to you.”

“Nothing is happening to me,” Bellamy snapped, turning on his side so he could look right into her eyes. “I promise.” He pushed her hair out of her face, and her hand rested over his, squeezing it slightly. “Wait, was that what made you snap?” he asked, still not fully aware of what was going through Clarke’s head when she decided to beat Cage with a baseball bat. From what she said, he didn’t attack her, there was no _immediate_ threat to her life, just an ominous future one. It wasn’t like Clarke to just _snap_ and act rashly like this. She was clever, calculating… they had a plan for getting away from Cage.

“I just… he killed Maya just to send me a message. I can only imagine what he would do to you or…” Clarke trailed off, looking down toward her stomach, and Bellamy slid closer to her, hugging her tightly against her chest. He pressed a kiss to her cheek, as she wiped away another tear.

“Well, nothing is happening to me or our baby, okay?” he reassured, and she nodded into his chest. “We’re going to see how the cards fall, and if it’s not safe for the three of us anymore, we’ll run… just like we planned. We’ll all be okay, princess.”

“I love you so much,” Clarke whispered, tilting her head up to look at him. Bellamy leaned forward, pressing his lips slowly to hers.

“And I love you,” he replied, and that small smile came back to her lips.

 

**Three Weeks Later**

_Raven_

 

When her phone started ringing, Raven didn’t know what to do. She showed Monty the phone, with Murphy’s name showing up in bold letters.

“We weren’t supposed to make phone calls, right?” Raven confirmed, and Monty threw his hands up in frustration.

“No one else was supposed to get shot tonight either,” he huffed, gesturing at the tv. Raven sucked in a breath, before answering the phone.

“Hey,” Raven said as calmly as she could. This phone call could be used as evidence later on down the road… and she needed to seem like she didn’t just witness Dante Wallace get shot.

“Have you heard about what happened at Kane’s house?” Murphy asked, and Raven let out a breath, realizing what he was doing. He was trying to establish that none of them knew about what went down tonight… making it seem like they weren’t in that house.

“Yeah, Monty and I are watching the news right now. Do you know anything?” she asked, and Monty’s eyes widened.

“No. I was with Bellamy and Clarke when Kane made us leave the house. Maybe if we had stayed…” he trailed off, and Raven let out a breath. That meant that neither Clarke nor Bellamy were the second body in the house.

“I’ll call Roan and see if he knows anything,” Raven said before hanging up. “The three of them are still alive,” Raven reassured Monty, who threw his head back. “Murphy was just trying to make it seem like we didn’t have a clue about what happened there tonight, for when we inevitably get called in.”

“We should never have left,” Monty snapped, and Raven clenched her jaw.

“You wanted to be a witness to whatever the fuck happened after we left?” she replied, cocking her head to the side.

“We could have stopped it.”

“We could have gotten shot,” she corrected, standing up to look him square in the eye.


	21. We're All Okay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty folks... this is the build up to the last murder chapter (I promise no more after this one). Can't wait to hear what you guys think! Love ya'll!

_Raven_

 

Kane was taking too long. She could barely hear Murphy talking to her over the ringing in her ears. Raven was terrified to open her eyes again, because then she’d see just how _close_ she was to Dante Wallace’s body.

“Everything is fine,” Murphy whispered, his thumbs rubbing circles into Raven’s shoulders. She didn’t understand how he was staying so calm. “We’ve done this before. We’ll do it again.”

Raven didn’t want to do any of it again. She didn’t want to spend an entire night in gut-wrenching panic, wondering if all the others were lying to her about something. She didn’t want to have to go home to Luna and find another explanation for why Raven couldn’t stop shaking.

“Roan,” Raven whispered, finally opening her eyes again. “Please, can we move yet?” Maybe if she just got far enough away from the body she could be okay.

“No, you might step in the blood,” Roan snapped, and Raven buried her face into Murphy’s chest before she could be tempted to survey just how much blood was on the floor.

“Remember, Professor Kane got us out of it last time, he’ll do it again,” Murphy whispered.

“Speaking really highly of a man that you’re hardly speaking to,” she grumbled, and Murphy let out a huff.

“Well, he has been an ass lately,” Murphy snapped, and Raven let out a breath. At least Murphy was calm enough to bitch about Kane. “But whether we all like it or not, we’re a weird little fucked up family now. So, he’ll take care of us.”

“Is this gonna be just like last time? Are you and Bellamy going to lie to us about something like the trophy again?” she snapped, shooting her head up to glare at him. Murphy’s jaw clenched, and he let go of Raven. He didn’t step away though. He couldn’t, per Roan’s instructions.

“They won’t have to this time,” Roan groaned, and Raven’s stomach clenched. He was right. No one would have to lie this time. They were all in on this together, not that they had any choice in the matter. After a year of lies and cover ups, they were all too tangled up in each other’s lives to ever really be free of each other or what they did.

When Professor Kane came back into the room, all their heads whipped around to look at him. He looked… unnerved. He was still holding that gun in his hand, a little shakily.

“What is he planning?” Raven whispered, and Murphy’s jaw clenched.

 

**Three Days Earlier**

 

_Marcus_

 

The turn out for Cage’s memorial was massive. Every lawyer in the state seemed to show up to pay their respects. Marcus hadn’t gotten his chance to offer his condolences in person yet. Of course, he had corresponded with Dante Wallace over the phone in regard to the Dax case, which had been put on hold until the ADA could prepare herself enough to take over for Wallace… and until Marcus could fucking find Dax.

He was about to go talk to Dante, but he was swarmed with people at the moment. All of them probably talking about what a tragedy that his son died so brutally, his body not even found until the morning after the mugging.

Marcus glanced over at Clarke Griffin, who was similarly swarmed with people. After all, she was essentially the widow here. But Marcus didn’t buy her grieving act for a second. That wasn’t grief. It was guilt.

Marcus Kane was no idiot. He can count on his hand the number of times he has seen Echo as panicked as she was the night she, Roan, and Bellamy ran out of his house. At the time, he jumped to the conclusion that Clarke was in trouble. And when news came out about Cage Wallace suddenly being found dead, he connected the dots immediately.

He noticed how sleep deprived Echo and Roan were when they came back to work the next morning, only offering vague explanations for what drove them out of the house the night before. He noticed how Bellamy seemed to be watching Clarke a little bit closer, being a bit more obvious about his affection for her than he had allowed himself earlier… not that the two of them were fooling Marcus to begin with. And he noticed something very _off_ about Clarke Griffin.

“Please tell me you came here to pick a fight with me,” Dante Wallace groaned, and Marcus turned around with a raised eyebrow.

“I didn’t, but I’m sure we could find something to fight about,” he offered, and Wallace forced a chuckle. “I am sorry about your son, though. He was a good man,” Marcus added in, although he was fairly certain that last part was a lie.

“Thank you for that and for coming,” Dante sighed, putting his hands in his pockets. “Distract me. Tell me what’s going on with Dax?”

Marcus’ jaw clenched. He had assumed that Dante Wallace would be too distracted by his grief to stay informed about the case. Perhaps he was wrong.

“I know he ran, Marcus,” Dante explained, and Marcus nodded along. The evidence had been stacking up against Dax for a while, and honestly, Marcus was only hoping to get the kid free of a death penalty charge at this point.

“I have one of my associates tracking him down. He’ll be back in time for court next week,” he reassured, and Dante offered a nod.

“Cases like this must make you wish you went into corporate law,” he teased, patting him on the back, before going back over to the hoards of people waiting to offer their condolences.

After a few minutes, he saw Clarke step outside onto the front porch. He took a deep breath, before following after her.

“Do you want a ride home, Clarke? I know these things can be a little much,” he offered, and Clarke’s jaw clenched.

“I should stay,” she murmured. He studied her closer. She was paler than normal with dark circles under her eyes.

“Clarke, you don’t look like you’re well,” he argued, and she worried her lip.

“Fine,” she huffed, and Marcus led her toward his car. They sat in the car in complete silence as Marcus mulled over what he should say to the girl. She had no idea that he knew what she did, and perhaps it should stay that way. Or maybe having another person to confide in would help her. It wasn’t like Marcus could ever turn Clarke in for this, especially since she knows what he did to Ontari. He was a pretty safe confidant when it came to murder confessions.

“Could you pull over for a sec?” Clarke asked, and Marcus jerked his head in her direction. He figured she couldn’t wait to be at her apartment and away from him. Why the hell would she need him to pull over?

But, he did as she asked, and she immediately swung the passenger door open, leaned over, and threw up. He turned his head quickly so he wouldn’t start to get nauseous at the sight. After a few gut-wrenching minutes, Clarke sat back up and closed the door.

“Clarke, do we need to get you to a doctor?” he asked, and Clarke shook her head.

“No, I’m fine. That was nothing,” she huffed, and he bit his lip, staring at her. “Just drive.”

But Marcus didn’t pull his car out of park. He wasn’t sure when he’d get another opportunity to talk to Clarke like this, and whether or not he was comfortable with it, he owed it to her to try and help her through whatever the hell happened that night.

“I’m sorry for everything, Clarke. I know that whatever you’re going through is a direct result of what I asked you to do last spring,” he said calmly, and her head whipped around to face him with a confused look on her face. “And I know you haven’t forgiven me for Ontari.”

“I have,” she sighed, throwing her head back. “You just snapped. You were trying to protect your… _family_ ,” she whispered, and Marcus furrowed his brows. He wasn’t expecting this from Clarke. No, he was expecting the girl who was gunning for a fight on day one of class last fall. He was expecting the same rant she gave him every time he tried to bring up Ontari.

“Clarke.”

“I now know that I would do the exact same thing, so stop apologizing and drive me home,” she snapped, and Marcus turned to face the road, and nodded.

 

_Roan_

 

“Echo?” he called out as soon as he got in the door, but no response. Then, he remembered that Echo was busy tracking down Dax in between doing a few handoffs to Lincoln.

It wasn’t a big deal, he decided. Actually, it was probably a good thing she wasn’t here. Things had been… weird.

It started after they took care of Maya’s body. Echo was kind of hysterical, which Roan had never witnessed before in his life. She was normally so composed and stoic. But she _broke_. And Roan didn’t know what to do. He had never really had to comfort Echo like this before. So, he just hugged her… and then just didn’t let go.

Nothing else had really changed between them, or anything. There was no reason he should get so worked up over it… but he did. Because they were hugging more, or occasionally holding hands… and he didn’t know how the fuck he was supposed to feel about that.

A knock on the door interrupted his unnerving train of thought, and he jumped at the opportunity for a distraction. When he opened the door, Marcus walked in with a puzzled look on his face.

“How was the memorial?” Roan asked.

“Fine,” Marcus mumbled, looking down at the ground. “You and Echo would tell me if you needed any help with Clarke, right?”

Roan clenched his jaw, wondering where the hell this was coming from. They had made it very clear to Marcus that he was to stay clear of what they were up to, that none of them actually trusted him.

“Clarke is fine,” Roan lied, and Marcus raised his eyebrows.

“So, she didn’t murder her fiancé?” he asked, and Roan bit his lip. He and Echo had mused that Marcus would probably figure it out. After all, they were too panicked that night to even come up with a convincing lie. The timing of it all would look too suspicious. “I drove her home from the memorial. She’s a wreck, Roan. And either she is really sick, or she has morning sickness.”

“We are taking care of Clarke,” Roan managed to stutter out, although things escalated far too quickly.

“The four of you are barely hanging on. Bellamy is a nervous wreck, and Clarke doesn’t have time on her side. Tell me what you need from me, and I’ll do it,” he said, and Roan bit his lip. On one hand, he still didn’t trust Marcus after what happened with Ontari. But on the other hand, he has consistently done what he had to for the interns, especially Bellamy and Clarke.

It wasn’t like Marcus could betray them without everything coming out about him as well. He had no reason to offer his help only to abandon them.

“First of all, you have to run everything by me, understood?” Roan warned, and Marcus nodded enthusiastically.

 

_Monty_

 

“He literally ran away. Why the hell are we still working on this case?” Monty grumbled, and Roan narrowed his eyes at him.

“Because it’s your job,” Roan snapped. Monty looked over at the others. Bellamy and Clarke were already hard at work going through the witness testimonies, like there was nothing wrong with what was going on here.

“Maybe we should go into corporate law,” Raven joked, and Monty felt himself relax. It was a nice reminder that this job was only temporary… that he could get away from these ridiculous murder cases one day and start over.

“You think those cases are any better?” Murphy huffed, and Monty jerked his head up. “What? It’s not like anyone is ever really innocent.”

Monty sat back down, pulling his laptop onto his lap. But what Murphy just said kept rattling around in his head. It was kind of true. And it was the one thing he learned by working for Marcus Kane.

He shook his head, trying to keep Murphy out of his head. He was in a weird funk and wasn’t telling anyone about it. Monty tried to talk to him, but he kept pulling away. So, Monty decided it was best to not engage with him when he got like this.

He glanced over at Clarke, seeing her completely focused on whatever it was that she was highlighting. He had been meaning to check up on her too, but never really got the opportunity. He and Raven had been wondering how Clarke actually felt after everything that happened to Cage. Monty knew she didn’t actually have feelings for him, but he was still a person she knew pretty well. It couldn’t have been easy to get the news that he had been killed.

“Turn on the news!” he heard Kane shout from his office, and Roan jumped up to find the remote. He started flipping through channels… until they all saw it. Kane ran in, his ears pressed to the phone. “Please tell me you have eyes on Dax,” he huffed into the phone.

The DA’s star witness had just been found dead in her car, with her throat slit.

“Son of a bitch,” Roan grumbled, throwing the remote onto the ground angrily. Monty exchanged a nervous look with Raven. It was bad enough that their client was a murderer. But he just murdered again…

 

_Bellamy_

 

When he got to Clarke’s apartment, she was already buried in bed… and sobbing.

“Hey, princess. You’re okay,” he sighed, sitting down next to her as he tugged his shoes off. “Look, we only have to wait it out a few more weeks,” he reminded her, and slowly she started to lower the covers to expose her tearstained face.

“Can’t we just run now? I can’t look at Dante Wallace in the eye ever again. I just can’t,” she sobbed, and Bellamy leaned all the way back, before tugging her toward his chest.

“I know, sweetheart. I know,” he whispered, running his fingers through her hair. “But we need things to settle down a little more before we can take off. Otherwise, we’ll look too suspicious and people will start looking for us.”

Her hand was resting on his chest, pressing out the creases in his shirt like she always did when she was trying to calm down. He wished he could say the stress wasn’t getting to him too, but it was. Every time Clarke was out of his sight, he was panicked about her safety. He hated how much time she had to spend with Dante Wallace… especially given how dangerous he probably was too. After all, the man raised Cage Wallace, and was definitely in on whatever happened to Jake Griffin. If he ever suspected anything of Clarke…

Bellamy shook his head, trying to get that particular train of thought out of his head.

“I’m sorry,” Clarke whispered, and he furrowed his brows at her. “Sorry I made your life so miserable.”

“Clarke, you didn’t,” he said quickly, and her bottom lip was starting to quiver again. “Hey,” he whispered, cupping her face to make her look at him. “I love you. Being with you is all I want. You make me happy. So fucking happy, Clarke.”

“You mean that?” she asked, and he nodded along, before pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“Yeah, I mean it. You’re it for me, Clarke. I love you, and you love me. You’re everything to me,” he said, and a ghost of a smile started to form on Clarke’s lips. “And our baby is everything to me,” he added in, loving how her smile grew even bigger at the mention of their baby. He let his hand slide down to her stomach, not sure if he would ever stop beaming at the fact that his baby was right _there_.

Clarke’s hand covered his, squeezing it slightly. His eyes flickered up to hers again, and she wasn’t crying anymore. Sure, her eyes were still a little red and puffy, but she was calming down… she always calmed down when he started talking to her about their baby.

“We’re going to have a beautiful life together, I promise,” he whispered. “We’ll find somewhere safe, and we’ll be a perfect little family.”

She leaned up, pressing a slow kiss to his lips. It was soft, just reassurance that she was with him. Eventually, she settled her head onto his chest, listening to his heartbeat. He kept peppering her forehead with kisses as his fingers ran through her hair. She was calming down enough that she could fall asleep… which she desperately needed. Between the morning sickness getting her up at all hours of the night and the ridiculous case Kane had them on, she wasn’t getting enough sleep… which was making Bellamy become a nervous wreck.

Her breathing finally evened out, and Bellamy let out a sigh of relief. He adjusted himself a bit so he could get comfortable, since he wasn’t about to get up and potentially wake up Clarke. But he wasn’t tired enough to sleep himself… and his mind was starting to drift to all the terrifying what ifs.

He knew they had a good plan. He knew that them disappearing was for only a little while, while Echo and Roan continued to work with Lincoln. One day, Clarke’s family would no longer be a danger to them, and they could safely come home. Everything was going to be okay. They had to be okay.

 

_Echo_

 

“So, you have eyes on him?” Marcus asked, and Echo rolled her eyes. Marcus had been a panicky mess ever since that witness showed up dead… not that she could blame him. But his anxiety was making it hard for her to do her damn job.

“Just got to the motel. It’s one of those that takes cash and asks no questions, if you catch my drift,” she sighed. “Do you want me to contact the authorities?”

“No, not yet,” Marcus said, and Echo rolled her eyes again. “Look, Dante Wallace decided to stay on the case… something about staying busy to distract himself. But, he’s stopping by any minute now to discuss what’s going on, and I’d like to hear what he has to say before we make any decisions about Dax,” he explained, and Echo could see the logic… not that she agreed with it. Then again, Marcus only took this case to help her and Roan keep Wallace distracted… so this was all kind of her fault.

“Okay, I’ll keep you updated in case anything changes,” she replied.

“And Echo?”

“Yeah?” she huffed.

“Thank you… for everything. I don’t think I say that nearly enough.”

“Nope, you don’t,” she retorted, and a small chuckled erupted from Marcus. Then, she hung up, leaning back in her seat to get comfortable.

 

_Clarke_

 

She forced herself to take a deep breath when Dante Wallace stepped into Professor Kane’s house. He offered Clarke a quiet nod… but something was off about him. Honestly, something had been off with him for the last week. She knew he was mourning his son and all… but there was something very unnerving about how it was manifesting itself.

Or, maybe Clarke was just being paranoid. After all, she covered her tracks well, and Roan and Echo made it look like a mugging. No one would know that she did it, or even suspect it. They were okay, she kept reminding herself.

Wallace immediately went into Kane’s office, and Clarke’s eyes flickered over to where Bellamy had been sitting… except he wasn’t sitting there anymore. That’s right, she remembered. Roan had drug Bellamy and Murphy outside to help him deal with the new case files for one of the newer clients.

She found herself tapping her pen a little obsessively, and Monty and Raven definitely took notice. But she couldn’t stop. Having Wallace in the house made her so nervous. And Bellamy wasn’t here to help her calm down or distract her.

She leaned back on the couch, clenching her eyes shut for just a few moments.

“Be right back,” Raven said as soon as her phone started ringing, and Clarke opened her eyes just in time to see the cute little smile Raven had when she looked down at her phone… it was Luna. And Raven practically skipped down the hallway as she answered the phone.

Clarke couldn’t help but smile at the display. Raven was so damn happy with Luna… and she deserved that happiness.

Clarke’s head snapped out of her momentary distraction as soon as Kane’s office door opened and closed again.

“You guys don’t happen to have coffee here, do you?” Dante asked Monty with a sweet smile.

“Yeah, I’ll go grab you a cup,” Monty offered, practically sprinting into the kitchen… leaving Clarke completely alone with Dante Wallace.

“You doing okay, Clarke?” he asked, and she nodded quickly… probably a little too nervously.

“Yeah,” she finally said, standing up from her seat… because she just couldn’t stay in this room anymore. It was getting too hard to breathe. “Uh, I just remembered I need to grab something from my car,” she explained, trying to brush past him, but he grabbed onto her wrist… squeezing it a little too tightly for it to mean anything good.

“Stop,” Wallace snapped, his demeanor completely changed, and Clarke looked back at him with a panicked look on her face.

“Is everything okay?” she asked, looking around to see if anyone was close by enough to see what was happening… but everyone was completely out of sight.

“I know what you did to my son, Clarke,” he said with a hint of threat in his voice.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Clarke lied, her eyes dropping down to his waist… _he was armed_. She glanced back up at him, putting the pieces together quickly. He didn’t come here to discuss the Dax case with Kane… he came here for _her_.

“Here is what is going to happen,” he whispered, stepping close to her. “You’re going to tell the others that you forgot about an event that you have to go to tonight, and you’re going to calmly get in my car and go on a little drive with me. Do anything else, and this is going to get ugly,” he threatened, his hand now pulling out his gun.

Monty chose this horrifying moment to come back into the living room, and Dante’s head turned just long enough for Clarke to lunge forward and knock the gun out of his hand. He quickly threw Clarke into the wall, his forearm pressing against her throat.

 

**One Hour Later**

 

_Murphy_

 

His entire body was shaking. Murphy had fallen to his knees, clutching the gun like his life depended on it. The gunshot was still ringing in his head… and he just _couldn’t_ figure out what the hell just happened.

“We have to go,” Bellamy snapped, and Murphy clenched his eyes shut. “Murphy, hand me the gun,” Bellamy pleaded.

“No, we need to stay. He’s still alive,” Murphy whispered.

“We stay and we’ll all be arrested. Do you want that?” Bellamy growled, reaching for the gun, but Murphy jerked it far enough away that Bellamy couldn’t reach.

“Bellamy, stop,” Clarke snapped, and Murphy noticed that Bellamy’s hands were actually shaking. “Hey, Murphy,” Clarke said softly. “Look at me,” she whispered, and Murphy slowly turned his head. She was kneeling down next to him, holding her hand out to him.

“We can’t leave,” Murphy whispered shakily.

“If we leave now, we can get out in time before the ambulances get here. He’s still alive,” she reassured, rubbing his arm with her hand in a calming motion. “We have to go now, or all of this was for nothing,” she whispered, and Murphy clenched his eyes shut again. She was making a lot of sense… but he wasn’t sure he could _move_. “I need you to give me the gun, Murphy,” she said, and Murphy handed it over slowly. When the gun finally left his fingertips, he felt like a huge weight had just been lifted from his shoulders.

“Come on, let’s stand up,” Bellamy said, his arm wrapping around Murphy’s back. Clarke joined in too, both of them pulling him to his feet. “I parked out back. You think you can make it that far?” he asked, and Murphy nodded rapidly.

“You’re okay. We’re all okay,” Clarke whispered, as they made their way into the kitchen, before slipping out the backdoor.


	22. It's How We Save Everyone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MURDER CHAPTER 2.0! 
> 
> Not as long as chapter ten, but around 7k... so still a monster of a chapter. I got real emotional writing this, and I hope you guys enjoy it. I wanted to get this up before Christmas (merry Christmas by the way) so I pushed through editing it tonight. 
> 
> Anyway, can't wait to hear what you guys think. I hope at least some of it is shocking to you guys, although I know this one was a bit easier to predict than the last one. Love you guys! You're all perf!

_Marcus_

 

“And I just don’t know what to do about her anymore. She’s become even more distant,” Abby huffed, and Marcus shifted in his seat, pressing the phone closer to his ear. “It wasn’t like she even wanted to marry Cage in the first place.”

Marcus bit his lip, frustrated that he knew the answer to Abby’s concerns… but could never tell her the truth. Clarke was right not to completely trust her mother, especially given Abby’s less than clear stance on the family business.

“It probably brought up a lot of memories of Jake and Wells,” he offered, and Abby sighed. “Just give her time.”

“She has had weeks,” Abby groaned, and Marcus leaned forward, taking the Dax case file in his hands. Honestly, he had expected Dante Wallace to have more to say on the Dax issue… but he barely said a word. Dane seemed distracted, like this was the last place he wanted to be. Not that Marcus could blame the man. He just lost his son. “Can you at least tell me how she is doing?”

“She’s burying herself in work, keeping busy,” he explained. “She’s very close with the other interns here. Clarke has a good support group. She will be okay,” he reassured, before hearing something crash in the living room. He clenched his jaw… wondering what little fight was going on with the interns this time.

“You would tell me if she started acting strangely, right?” Abby asked.

“Marcus!” he heard Roan shout in a very panicked voice, and Marcus stood up quickly.

“Abby, I have to go,” he said, hanging up immediately. He sprinted out of his office, quickly taking in the scene around him.

He could see Raven and Murphy holding Dante Wallace back, while Bellamy tried to get Clarke as far away from him as possible.

Then, Wallace hit Raven right in the face, and Marcus caught a glimpse of the murderous look in his eyes.

That’s when his eyes dropped to the floor, spotting a gun on the rug. It wasn’t Roan or Clarke’s… Marcus knew the makes of those guns thanks to Echo. Quickly, the pieces started to pull themselves together. That had to be Dante’s gun… Dante brought a gun to this house… he kept lunging after Clarke… he came here to kill Clarke… _Dante knew what Clarke did to Cage_.

Without thinking, Marcus crouched down to grab the gun. He could vaguely hear two voices coming from behind him, but they were shouting over each other too quickly… he couldn’t understand any of it.

“Shit, get his other arm,” he heard Murphy snap, and Raven followed the order, helping Murphy tug him toward the wall… and Marcus had a clean shot, so he took it.

As Dante Wallace fell to the ground, his thoughts started to catch up with him. Marcus Kane just shot the District Attorney. He dropped the gun, hearing a quiet thump when it hit the ground.

 

_Bellamy_

 

“Breathe. Hey, we’re okay,” Bellamy whispered into Clarke’s ear, slowly rocking both of them side to side. He tried running his fingers through her hair, but he was shaking too badly to even do that.

Clarke heaved into his chest, and Bellamy gripped her even tighter. He wasn’t sure what it was specifically that had Clarke so worked up… whether it was that Dante Wallace was that close to killing her, or that Kane just killed Wallace in front of all of them.

“I’ve got you, princess. We’re safe,” he murmured, feeling Clarke shake her head into his chest. He wished he could be more convincing… but he almost _lost her_. Just moments ago, there was a very real possibility that Clarke would have died. _His_ Clarke… his everything. “Listen, we can do this,” he whispered low enough so that no one else could hear him. “We’re going to do what we have to do tonight, and then you and I are going to run,” he whispered, and Clarke’s head shot up, her eyes wide. She could probably see the panic in Bellamy’s eyes, which couldn’t be very reassuring.

“Who cares if we step in blood? We’re just going to have to get rid of the body and clean up the blood anyway,” Murphy snapped, and Bellamy was jerked back into the conversation, feeling Clarke hold onto his shirt collar even tighter. He needed to stay focused, otherwise the decisions for tonight would be made by people that Bellamy did not trust to make decisions.

“Everyone take a damn breath,” Roan growled, stepping around Kane… who looked like he was about to throw up. Bellamy knew the feeling.

“We don’t have time to take a breath!” Monty snapped.

“No, we need to think this through so we don’t make the wrong decision,” Bellamy huffed.

“Like we did when we helped you?” Raven growled, and Bellamy turned to look at her… she was as much of a mess as Clarke was.

“It’s been a year. Let it go!” Roan snapped.

“This is the exact same nightmare all over again, except this time it was Wallace who attacked Clarke, and he got shot instead of bludgeoned to death,” Murphy shouted, and Bellamy clenched his eyes shut, his mind drifting back to when Jaha first hit the ground… and he pulled Clarke even tighter. No, Bellamy couldn’t survive another night where Clarke came that close to death… it would kill him.

“Everyone quiet!” Kane screamed, and Bellamy’s eyes widened… seeing that _gun_ back in his hands again. “I’ve got this. All of you just need to take a breath and give me a moment to think,” he explained, lowering the gun.

 

_Roan_

 

Bellamy and Clarke were careful as they walked out of the room, but he could feel Raven’s fury over the fact that she couldn’t move yet. But Roan wasn’t about to risk it. There were very few places that Murphy or Raven could step where they would miss the blood.

Roan stepped back, glancing at Marcus’ office door. Any moment now, he should come back… and he’d have a plan.

Because God knows that Roan didn’t have a plan. When he first ran in and saw what was happening, he _froze_. Roan never froze. His brain just couldn’t process what was happening fast enough.

Then, Marcus’ gunshot rang out, and all his thoughts caught up with him at once. People would have known that Dante was coming over to this house… they couldn’t just make the body disappear. Everyone would come here first. And then there’s the fact that he died via gunshot. Someone on this street likely heard it, perhaps the cops were already being called.

“Roan. Please, can we move yet?” Raven begged.

“No, you might step in the blood,” he replied, which caused Raven to break back into a sob.

Seven people in this house, seven witnesses to Dante’s murder… _seven_ people who could screw this up. There was no clean solution. Not this time.

 

_Clarke_

 

“Everything is okay,” Bellamy whispered, his shaky hand tucking her hair behind her ear. But nothing was okay… nothing was ever okay in this house. Clarke almost died tonight, and their baby…

“Bellamy, I can’t keep doing this,” she said, tears pouring down her cheeks, and Bellamy bit his lip, nodding with a similarly distraught face. She could handle living with what they did to Jaha, or just dealing with the guilt of what she did to Cage… but that was it. She can’t take another night like tonight. Bellamy and she had been through _enough_.

She sucked in a shaky breath, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. All she could see was Dante lunging at her with so much hatred in his eyes… because he _knew_ Clarke had murdered his son.

“Hey, princess. Breathe for me,” Bellamy begged, and her eyes flickered up to his. He rested his forehead against hers, his hand rubbing up and down her arm slowly. “You’re okay, I’m okay,” he whispered.

“I know, I know, but…” Clarke murmured, wiping the tears from her face.

“You’re both okay,” Bellamy said suddenly, his voice cracking. When his hand rested over her stomach, Clarke felt her own shoulders relax. He was right. She and the baby were okay, and so was Bellamy. Their whole little family was okay.

“I love—”

“Monty, where the hell are you?” Roan shouted, causing Clarke and Bellamy to jump. She glanced over, seeing Monty panicked in the doorway.

“Sorry, Roan asked me to come get you guys,” Monty explained, and Clarke moved past him quickly. They didn’t have time on their side. They had to make a decision and act quickly.

 

_Marcus_

 

“I need you to make sure that he doesn’t have an alibi tonight,” Marcus whispered, clenching his eyes shut. He already felt guilty for framing Dax… but the kid was already a murderer. And it was the only way.

“Consider it done,” Echo replied, but he could hear the hesitation in her voice. He wished he could tell her everything, knowing that she would be able to tell him if this plan was stupid.

No, it wasn’t stupid. Dax was prone to rash behavior, especially when he felt like he was backed into a corner. Any jury would be able to buy that Dax showed up to kill the man who was going to put him away for multiple life sentences… there was only one thing left Marcus had to do to make the story believable. After all, there’s no way that Dax would leave a witness.

“Echo, you know I care about you, right?” he whispered shakily. “That you and Roan mean the world to me,” he pleaded. He wasn’t sure how tonight was going to work out… for all he knew, this could be one of the last conversations he ever had with Echo. And he couldn’t rest easy unless she knew that he loved her and Roan… and maybe one day she could forgive him for what he did. Maybe one day all of them, including the kids, could forgive him.

“Nothing is going to go wrong tonight,” she cut him off, and Marcus’ jaw clenched. “I’ve got this.”

Then, she hung up… leaving Marcus all alone with the muffled sound of the kids’ panic in the other room. He kept the phone tight in one hand, the gun in the other. He shakily walked back into the living room, trying to see if he missed anything in his plan… if there was another solution he was somehow missing.

“Marcus, what is the plan?” Roan shouted, jerking him out of his thoughts. Marcus stared at him for a moment, realizing that there was no way in hell Roan would go along with this.

“I don’t know. Just let me think,” he snapped, pulling his own hair as he thought this over.

He could vaguely hear the kids arguing amongst themselves… and it was just too much. Raven was hysterical, and he knew Monty was only a few seconds away from breaking himself… the two of them couldn’t stay here either.

“Roan, I need you to get Reyes and Green out of here,” he decided, and Roan shot him a perplexed look. “Look,” Marcus whispered, pulling him toward the side. He saw Clarke and Bellamy run over to help Raven step over the body safely. “They are the most likely to break and ruin this for all of us. They have to get out of here,” he explained. “Then, you come right back here and we’ll deal with this,” he lied, and Roan’s lips twitched.

“No.”

“Trust me,” Marcus pleaded, before realizing that those were the exact words that Roan would never accept. “What can I do to make you trust me?”

“Hand that gun to Bellamy,” Roan decided. “Bellamy, come here,” he ordered, and Bellamy jogged over. Marcus raised an eyebrow at Roan, who wasn’t backing down as he glared down at Marcus. He handed the gun over to Bellamy, who looked horribly confused. “You aren’t to give that back to Professor Kane, understood?” he huffed, and Bellamy nodded.

Quickly, Raven and Monty followed Roan toward the front door, as Clarke and Bellamy helped Murphy get away from the body.

As soon as he heard Roan’s car start, Marcus started dialing 911.

“What is the plan?” Murphy snapped, as Marcus put the phone to his ear.

He quickly did the math in his head… it would take about ten or fifteen minutes for the ambulances to get to the house… giving the three of them the time they needed to get away.

“Who are you calling?” Clarke snapped, and Bellamy stepped in front of her with a nervous expression on his face.

“911, what is your emergency?” a woman answered.

“My name is Marcus Kane and I’ve been shot,” he started, making sure to sound a bit out of breath. “Dax just shot DA Wallace and then he shot me. I think Dante is dead. Oh God, he’s dead.”

This was how Marcus was going to save everybody.

 

_Bellamy_

 

“What are you doing?” Bellamy shouted as soon as Kane hung up the phone. That phone call was going to make the police get here any second.

“One of you is going to shoot me,” Kane huffed, and Clarke stepped closer to Bellamy, holding tightly onto his bicep. “Echo is taking care of Dax so he doesn’t have an alibi. The story is going to be that I made all of you leave when Wallace got here, and then Dax showed up, angry about a deal that Wallace and I discussed, and shot us both.”

“Have you lost your fucking mind?” Murphy snapped, and Bellamy glanced back at Clarke. She was clearly deep in thought, processing this batshit crazy plan.

“You’ll just shoot me in the leg. I won’t die. I trust you,” Kane explained.

“Bell, we don’t have a choice. He already made the call,” Clarke whispered, and suddenly Bellamy realized exactly why Roan warned him not to give Kane the gun… if need be, he might just shoot himself.

“Bellamy, it’s how we save everyone,” Kane whispered, and Bellamy glanced down at the gun in his hand. “If tonight falls apart, we will all go down. You and Clarke included,” he continued, and Bellamy’s jaw clenched.

He slammed his eyes shut, thinking this over. He didn’t have a lot of time to make a decision… not enough time. But if the police showed up and Kane hadn’t been shot, who knew how much of the truth would come out. At least that Wallace showed up to avenge his son’s death… meaning Clarke would go to prison.

 _No_ , he realized. She wouldn’t make it to prison. Her grandfather would have her killed before she even had a chance to talk. He’d lose them both.

 _There wasn’t a choice_.

But when he tried to lift the gun, his hand was too shaky. His mind kept flashing back to when he killed his mother’s boyfriend, to when he bashed Jaha’s head in…

He knew that he did what he had to do. He was protecting who he loved, just like now… but this was _Kane_. He wasn’t some monster endangering his family. He was the man that protected Bellamy and the others when he didn’t have to… he kept all of them safe after what Bellamy did to Jaha. He was the closest thing Bellamy would ever have to a father.

Bellamy lifted his finger off the trigger, feeling the tears escape from his eyes. He glanced back at Clarke, who seemed to be following his train of thought.

“I can’t,” he murmured, and Clarke held out her hand… without an ounce of shakiness.

“Give it to me,” Clarke whispered, and Bellamy placed the gun in her hand. “Just a shot in the leg. I have good aim,” she tried to reassure, but he could hear the hesitance in her voice.

 

_Echo_

 

Taking out the camera was a little too easy, and if anyone ever linked Dax to this motel, it would just look like he tampered with it so no one could prove that he wasn’t here all night.

Picking the lock was less easy, but she got it done. She opened the door quietly, seeing that Dax was passed out on his bed.

She swallowed, eyeing him carefully. It wasn’t like he was an innocent, anyway. She already knew he had killed three people, and those were just the ones she knew about. If he stayed free, he’d probably keep killing. She decided she was doing the right thing.

She pulled the towel out of her pocket, before placing it over Dax’s nose and mouth. His eyes jerked open for a moment, but not long enough for him to recognize Echo in the pitch darkness of the room. Then, his eyes closed again… the drugs knocking him out.

Dragging his body toward the car was the hardest part. It had been a while since Echo had to deal with a body on her own, and it had never been alive before. She was out of breath by the time she made it to the parking lot, and she counted the number of cars. Same number as before. No one had come or left in the time that it took her to get Dax.

She lugged him into the backseat, letting him drop to the floor in the back.

 

_Clarke_

 

“Take the shot, Clarke,” Kane snapped, and Clarke shot Bellamy another glance. He was worriedly studying Clarke, clearly making sure that she was okay with doing this. She wasn’t, of course… but Kane didn’t give them another option after that phone call.

“Just give me a second,” she huffed, getting herself situated. This wasn’t a hard shot… it was a shot she could take in her damn sleep. She spent her entire summer working on her aim. She knew exactly how to shoot him so he would live.

“We don’t have time. You can do this. You always do whatever you have to,” Kane said, and Clarke’s jaw clenched. She lined up the shot, keeping both hands on the gun. “Come on. You can do this.”

She made the mistake of looking into his eyes, seeing how he was pleading with her to just shoot him. She had been angry with Marcus Kane for so long… furious after what he did with Ontari, furious that he convinced her to go back to her family.

But she now knew that everything he had done was because he thought he had to… that he did whatever it took to make sure his family got out of this okay… and somehow, Clarke was in his little family.

She took a deep breath. She could do this.

“Do it. Do it for your family, Clarke. This is how we save everyone,” Kane pleaded, and Clarke got herself ready to take the shot.

But she couldn’t pull the trigger. He was her family too… she couldn’t shoot him. She couldn’t hurt another person she cared about.

 

_Raven_

 

“Which apartment?” Roan grumbled.

“Monty’s. Luna will be at mine,” she huffed, shaking her head rapidly. No, she couldn’t go home to Luna. Not again. She was a mess. Luna would see her and panic and want to know what happened… and then Raven would have to lie to her _again_.

“Well, Harper might be at mine,” Monty groaned, and Raven looked back in the backseat to glare at him. “Okay, I’ll tell her that I’m busy with work.”

“Nope. Because you don’t want that as evidence,” Roan snapped. “Don’t even text Harper. Don’t use your phones while we are still close enough to the house. It’ll throw out any alibi you build for yourselves.”

“Harper can’t see us like this!” Monty snapped, and Roan pulled over, before turning around to glare at Monty, before looking at Raven.

“Both of you, take a fucking breath. This isn’t your first time around. You’re better than this. Get yourselves together and get ready to lie,” he growled, and Raven threw her head back. “Otherwise, we’re all going to jail.”

Roan veered back onto the road, driving like a mad man… and Raven gripped the side of her seat.

She glanced back at Monty, who seemed to be handling this better than she was.

“Kane has got this,” Monty offered, and she bit her lip. She really wanted to believe that. She wanted to believe that Kane was going to take care of them like he always did… but she saw it in everyone’s eyes. No one knew what to do. There was no simple way out of this mess… not this time.

 

_Murphy_

 

“Clarke, take the fucking shot!” Kane shouted, but Clarke had already lowered her arm all the way. Murphy took this opportunity to yank the gun out of her hand.

“No one is taking the shot,” Murphy snapped, and Kane’s eyes widened. “You don’t deserve to get shot.”

“I just shot Dante,” Kane replied, stepping toward Murphy slowly. He could see Bellamy pull Clarke behind him protectively out of the corner of his eye.

“You did that to protect Clarke,” Murphy clarified. “That doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to get shot. So, we’re not shooting you,” he said as calmly as he could.

“Yes, I do. I deserve it, John,” Kane snapped. “I slit Ontari’s throat.”

“I know,” Murphy replied. “We all forgive you for that.” He glanced over at Clarke and Bellamy who were nodding furiously. “We forgive you for everything.”

“You can’t forgive me,” Kane said, narrowing his eyes at Murphy. It was like Kane knew that Murphy was lying, that he couldn’t easily forgive Marcus Kane for the trauma that Ontari’s disappearance put all of them through, or how it drove Emori to run. Murphy might hate Kane for that, but he didn’t hate him enough to shoot him. “I’ve ruined your life.”

“Stop,” Murphy warned, and Bellamy stepped toward him.

“Don’t listen to him. He’s just trying to get you to shoot him. He’s lost his fucking mind,” Bellamy whispered.

“I was the original attorney on the Alex Murphy case,” Kane said quickly, and Murphy’s eyes flickered to his. “I left the case because I didn’t think there was a chance in hell I’d win.”

“What is he talking about?” Clarke asked, and Murphy tightened his grip around the gun.

“Murphy’s father got the death penalty, and I could have prevented it,” Kane explained, cocking an eyebrow at Murphy.

This was the information that Murphy had been looking for, before Emori showed up and got him sidetracked. Marcus Kane was who abandoned his father… just days before the trial. His father never stood a chance.

“We’re running out of time. I deserve it, so take the shot, John!” Kane shouted.

“Murphy, you don’t have to do this,” Clarke said, stepping toward him, but Bellamy pulled her away from him.

“Take the shot!” Kane shouted again. “I’m the reason your dad is dead. I’m the reason Emori ran. I’m the reason all of you are in this mess. I deserve this!”

“Murphy, don’t do it. Give me the gun. I’ll do it,” Bellamy pleaded, but Murphy kept his eyes locked on Kane.

“Shoot me! I deserve it!” Kane shouted.

“No, you don’t!” Murphy screamed back, and he shakily lifted his arm, taking aim. “You don’t deserve this,” Murphy whispered.

“Please,” Kane whispered, and Murphy pulled the trigger.

 

_Bellamy_

 

Bellamy should have taken the damn shot, he should have done it without thinking. It would have spared Murphy the agony of living with what he just did. And Murphy wasn’t as good of a shot… which put Kane into more danger of not surviving this.

“We have to go,” Bellamy reminded, looking down at where Murphy had fallen to his knees.

“You’re going to be okay,” Clarke whispered, and he jerked his head back, looking at Clarke crouching beside Kane with tearful eyes. “The ambulance is on its way. And we’re all going to see you real soon.”

“Murphy, hand me the gun,” Bellamy pleaded.

“No, we need to stay. He’s still alive,” Murphy whispered, his eyes dazed.

“We stay and we’ll all be arrested. Do you want that?” Bellamy snapped, reaching for the gun, but Murphy jerked it just out of his reach.

“Bellamy, stop,” he heard Clarke shout, and he looked up at her with a desperate look on his face. They couldn’t be anywhere near here when the police actually got here… and they had maybe five minutes, tops. “Hey, Murphy,” Clarke whispered softly. “Look at me.” She held her hand out calmly, and Bellamy threw his head back. They didn’t have the time to be gentle.

“We can’t leave,” Murphy said, shaking his head.

“If we leave now, we can get out in time before the ambulances get here. He’s still alive,” she continued, and Bellamy took a deep breath. “I need you to give me the gun, Murphy,” she said, and Murphy slowly handed it over.

“Come on, let’s stand up,” Bellamy ordered, helping Murphy get to his feet. “I parked out back. You think you can make it that far?”

 

_Clarke_

 

When they reached the first red light, Bellamy reached out to grab her hand. He pulled it to his lips, pressing a long, hard kiss to the back of her hand.

“We’re okay,” she reassured, and his eyes immediately dropped to her stomach. “Baby is okay, I’m okay, you’re okay,” she reassured, and he let go of her hand, turning his eyes back to the road.

They sat in silence for a few moments, and Clarke took a deep breath. Kane would be okay. Sure, Murphy didn’t shoot him right where he was supposed to… but he should be fine. He _had_ to be fine.

“Chlorine,” Bellamy whispered, and Clarke’s head turned in his direction. “Uh, I think if we could find a pool or something, we could drop the gun in it. We could wipe that thing down a million times, and our DNA would be still on it.” Clarke clenched her eyes shut, remembering that they now had a murder weapon to get rid of. “The chlorine would destroy the evidence.”

The gun was Dante’s… which likely meant it wasn’t even registered in his name. That was good news. The bad news was that Dante, Marcus, Clarke, Bellamy, and Murphy had handled it tonight.

“There’s a neighborhood behind the football field. I think they have a public pool,” Clarke said, snapping her eyes back open. She glanced back at Murphy, who was hyperventilating in the backseat. “Murphy? Bellamy, pull over.”

“We can’t stop. We have to keep going,” Murphy mumbled, not even looking up to make eye contact. He was _not okay_.

“He’s having a panic attack,” Bellamy whispered, and Murphy finally looked up at them.

“Murphy, I need you to breathe,” she tried to reassure, but Murphy wasn’t looking at her anymore. His focus was on something behind her and Bellamy.

“Turn that up,” Murphy ordered, and Bellamy sat back in his seat, turning up the radio.

“… at a home belonging to Arkadian Law School Professor, Marcus Kane. There is no update on who the two bodies belong to, but a source at the scene speculated that one of the victims was still alive when the paramedics arrived,” the announcer said, and Clarke let out a breath.

“This is good news,” Bellamy whispered. Yeah, it was. It meant that he was still alive, that he was going to be okay… that this crazy, horrible plan might just work.

“Bellamy,” she said, but Bellamy kept his eyes on Murphy.

“It had to be done,” Bellamy said.

“We just got word that one of the bodies belongs to District Attorney Dante Wallace,” the radio said, and Clarke’s stomach clenched.

“What did we do?” she whispered, her mind flashing back to how Wallace lunged at her, how he pressed his arm to her throat. He wanted her _dead_. All because she killed his son.

“What we always do,” Murphy growled, and Clarke’s stomach dropped. He was right. This is what always happened, it seemed. None of them could get away from it. “Now, we need to get moving. We still need to get rid of the gun.”

 

_Echo_

 

She was driving back into town, when her phone started ringing.

“I told you no phone calls, idiot,” Echo growled, and she heard Roan sigh on the other end. She had no idea what the hell went down tonight, but she sure as hell knew that neither of them needed any evidence that could place them close to it.

“Echo, something horrible has happened,” he whispered, his voice breaking slightly. “Uh, I came to the house, and there were ambulances and police cars everywhere. I can’t get to the house. Do you know what happened?”

She clenched her jaw, realizing that Roan was also speaking carefully. No matter how rattled he was, he wouldn’t say anything that would implicate him. “No, I haven’t been at the house all day. What have you found out?” she asked.

“Someone heard two gunshots coming from the house, Echo. No one will tell me who got shot,” he murmured. “I called to make sure that you were… okay.”

Echo pulled over to the side of the road, thrusting her car into park. _He thought Echo was one of the bodies_. She rested her head on the steering wheel, forcing herself to take a deep breath.

“Well, I am okay,” she stuttered out, hearing Roan clear his throat on the other line.

“It’s just… if something happened to you, and I never—”

“Don’t,” Echo interrupted him, before biting down hard on her lip. They both sat there in silence for a few moments, and Echo could hear the muffled noise in the background. Roan must still be by the house.

“Right,” Roan finally said, and she could hear him swallow. “Well, I’m going straight to the hospital, since there’s a chance that one of the two survived. I’ll wait for news there, if you want to come too.”

“I’m a little bit out of town right now. I’ll get there as soon as possible,” she replied.

“Wait, what are you doing?” he asked, and she glanced back into the backseat, checking on Dax’s unconscious body.

“Marcus asked me to try and track down Dax for court next week, but I couldn’t find him,” she lied, hoping Roan would be able to connect the dots. “I’ll call you when I get to the hospital.”

 

_Bellamy_

 

He checked the area, seeing that no one was even outside at the moment, before running across the street. He hopped the fence quickly, before making it to the tarp covered pool. He lifted it just enough to toss the gun into it, before running back toward the fence.

When he made his way back to the car, it looked like Murphy and Clarke were having a confrontation.

“Murphy, what’s going on?” he asked, glancing over at Clarke. She seemed to be… okay. Rattled, but not on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Only a little bit more to do before the two of them could take off, he kept reminding himself.

“It’s nothing,” Clarke said, not taking her eyes off Murphy.

“Okay, let’s get back in the car,” Bellamy ordered, marching around to the passenger side. A few moments later, Clarke hopped into the driver’s side, and Bellamy handed her the keys. Murphy grumbled to himself as he got back into the backseat. He noticed how Clarke’s jaw was clenched, and he _knew_ something just happened between them. But he wasn’t about to push Murphy… Bellamy knew exactly how Murphy was feeling right now, and he wasn’t about to say or do anything that could push him to act rashly.

“Where to?” Murphy asked.

“Your apartment. You need to go home and cool off,” Clarke said quickly, and Bellamy glanced back at Murphy, who had snapped his head shut.

“You sure that’s the best idea?” Bellamy asked, and Clarke’s jaw twitched.

“Emori is there. She knows how to calm him down,” Clarke replied, and Murphy parted his lips, leaning forward.

“I can’t tell Emori about what happened tonight,” Murphy snapped.

“Tell her about what Marcus told you, and she’ll think your reaction is just about that. You don’t have to tell her the context of how he told you, and it wouldn’t necessarily be lying either,” Clarke explained, and Bellamy took a deep breath.

 

_Monty_

 

 “Hey,” Raven said calmly, and Monty swallowed. At least this phone call would place them both at his apartment, far enough away from the house. “Yeah, Monty and I are watching the news right now. Do you know anything?”

He started pacing back and forth, fairly certain he would explode if this conversation lasted any longer. He glanced back at the tv screen, seeing footage of the ambulance wheeling out one of the bodies… but Monty had no idea who it could be.

At least he knew for a fact that it wasn’t Murphy or Roan.

“I’ll call Roan and see if he knows anything,” Raven said before hanging up. “The three of them are still alive,” she reassured, and he threw his head back. “Murphy was just trying to make it seem like we didn’t have a clue about what happened there tonight, for when we inevitably get called in.”

“We should have never left,” he muttered, realizing that there was only one other person alive at the house when they left… Professor Kane.

“You wanted to be a witness to whatever the fuck happened after we left?”

“We could have stopped it,” he argued, trying to figure out how the hell Kane would even get shot. Clarke, Bellamy, and Murphy had done some questionable things… but they wouldn’t just murder him.

“We could have gotten shot,” she corrected, standing up and looking him right in the eye.

“Raven, think. Who was the only other person in that house when we left?” he asked, and slowly it dawned on Raven.

Then, his front door swung open, and Harper came skipping in.

“Hey, I picked up some more milk while I was out,” she said, before shooting the two of them a confused look. “What’s going on?” she asked, glancing between the two of them.

“Come look at the news,” Monty whispered, gesturing to the tv. Harper’s face immediately erupted into panic, and Monty shot Raven a warning look. They were done talking about what they witnessed tonight. Now, it was the time to start lying. After all, the two of them were experts at it now.

 

_Roan_

 

“I will let you know as soon as I hear anything,” he reassured Raven, although he could hear a third voice in the background… God, he hoped Monty and Raven weren’t going to fuck this all up.

“Have you heard from Echo?” she asked.

“Yeah, she’s alive,” he sighed, throwing his head back. “I’ll keep you posted,” he said before hanging up.

He couldn’t wrap his head around what the fuck happened tonight. He should have demanded that Marcus tell him everything. And if his head was working properly, he would have.

He was sitting in the waiting room now, but no one would tell him anything… not even who it was that got carted in for surgery. Although, he had a horrible feeling about who it might be.

“Do we know who it is yet?” Echo asked in a huff, and Roan jumped up to hug her. He knew he had just seen her an hour ago, but still.

“No,” he murmured, burying his face into her shoulder. “No one will tell me anything.”

“Where is he?” he heard someone shout, and he jerked his head up, seeing Abby Griffin sprinting up to the desk.

“No,” Echo whispered, gripping onto Roan even tighter.

“Ma’am, I need you to calm down,” the woman replied, and Roan just started shaking his head.

“Tell me it’s not Marcus,” Echo pleaded, and his lips twitched. Roan had narrowed the list down, leaving Marcus as the only other person left in that house that could have been shot.

“He probably made Abby his emergency contact after we left,” he whispered, watching Abby Griffin closely as a doctor pulled her aside, overly calm. He saw how her face faltered, how quickly the tears started pouring. “It’s Marcus, Echo. He’s who got shot,” he murmured, before pressing a kiss to the top of Echo’s head.

 

_Murphy_

 

“Slow down,” Emori pleaded, and he just kept pacing. He couldn’t explain anymore… not without telling her exactly what _he did_.

He shot Marcus Kane. Murphy did that. And Kane could die. Murphy could be a murderer. He wasn’t a _murderer_. He couldn’t be a murderer.

“I can’t breathe,” Murphy managed to get out, before leaning against the wall and sinking to the ground. Emori jumped up to rush over to him, sitting right next to him on the ground.

“Explain to me what I’m not getting. Please,” she pleaded, and fuck, he wanted to tell her. But he couldn’t. He knew how easily spooked she was, how she would insist they run before anyone figured out what he did.

“Just hold me. Just hold me,” he repeated breathlessly, and Emori pulled him into her chest, running her fingers through his messy hair.

“Everything is going to be okay,” she whispered, but nothing was going to be okay. Marcus Kane was in the hospital because of what Murphy did… because Murphy let Kane get into his head. “Hey, I love you. I’ve got you.”

“I love you too,” he stuttered, clenching his eyes shut.

 

_Clarke_

 

“Clarke, you need to come to the hospital,” Roan said over the phone calmly, and she squeezed Bellamy’s hand. “Your mother just showed up, meaning that Marcus was one of the people who got shot tonight.”

She could hear the accusation in his voice, and imagined he had already figured out that it had to be one of the three of them who shot him.

“Is he okay?” she asked, shooting a worried look over to Bellamy.

“We don’t know. They won’t tell us anything, which probably means he’s still in surgery,” Roan replied, and Clarke nodded along. That meant he was still alive.

“Bellamy and I will be right there,” she said before hanging up, and then let out a breath. She knew the second they got to that hospital that they’d be assaulted with questions about what happened.

“We’re not going to the hospital,” Bellamy snapped, and she whipped her head around to look at him. “We’re going to my apartment to grab our stuff, and then we’re leaving.”

“Bellamy…” Clarke whispered. She knew that when the first gunshot went off, he was determined to get them out of there, but she had hoped he would calm down as the night went on. They couldn’t run just yet.

“It’ll take twenty minutes tops, and we get right back in this car and drive. We can drive through the night,” Bellamy explained quickly, his brows furrowed intensely.

“We can’t leave just yet,” Clarke argued. “We need to make sure the others know what happened and that the police buy the story. Murphy is a mess. We have to stay!”

“I almost lost you!” he shouted, his face just inches away from hers now. “If we hadn’t heard Monty scream for us, you could have died, Clarke. I’m not sticking around just so we can wait for something like that to happen again.” She could see the tears pouring down his face, and she cupped his face between her hands.

“You didn’t lose me, though. You pulled me away. You protected me,” she reassured, but the _fear_ didn’t leave Bellamy’s eyes. “And now we need to protect Murphy. He needs us.”

“He’ll be fine,” Bellamy huffed, trying to pull away, but Clarke kept a tight grip on his face.

“You and I know just how it feels to take a life. We can help him through this. And Marcus will make it through, confirm his story with the police… and we’ll be okay.”

“For how long, Clarke?” he asked, and Clarke bit her lip. He knew where he was coming from. Every time they thought they were in the clear, something else happened, another dead body ended up at their feet.

“We will stay as long as it takes to get Dax to go down for this, and then you and I will disappear,” she whispered. They had a bit of time left before she started showing, and even then, she could hide it for a while.

“I need you,” he whispered, and Clarke pressed a slow kiss to his lips.

“You have me,” she reassured, resting her forehead against his.

“Clarke, tell me that we’re going to get out of town soon,” he pleaded, and she nodded slowly. As soon as possible, they would make a run for it. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life terrified I’m going to lose you. I want to marry you. I want to have a family with you. I want to have a long life with you. Please, tell me I can have that,” he pleaded, and Clarke felt the tears sneak back into her eyes.

“You can and you will. I promise,” she whispered, before pressing her lips against his.

 

_Raven_

 

When Murphy showed up at the hospital, he looked like a complete wreck. “What happened?” Roan whispered, and Murphy’s lips parted, but no words came out.

Then, Clarke and Bellamy rushed in, and Echo and Roan immediately dragged them into the corner of the waiting room, far from prying eyes.

Raven noticed that Clarke held onto Murphy’s hand, and Murphy rested his head on her shoulder… which was _odd_.

“What fucking happened?” Roan growled quietly.

“After Kane sent you guys away, he called 911, saying that Dax shot him,” Clarke whispered, and Raven shot Monty a confused look.

“What the hell?” Monty snapped, but Echo waved him off.

“Then, what?” Roan snapped, eyeing Clarke carefully.

“He asked us to shoot him,” Clarke whispered.

“More like demanded,” Bellamy jumped in. _They shot Marcus Kane_. Raven gripped Monty’s hand, needing something to hold onto so she didn’t fall over.

“He sent me away because he knew I wouldn’t have let that happen,” Roan groaned, throwing his head back. It made sense. The more people there, the more likely that someone could talk him out of it.

“Dax is taken care of, without an alibi,” Echo whispered, and Raven’s eyes widened even further. “Clarke, please tell me you were the one to take the shot.”

Clarke’s lips parted and her brows furrowed. “I tried to, but I couldn’t calm down enough to get a clean shot,” she said with a hesitant look on her face.

“So, I took the shot,” Bellamy said quickly, stepping toward Echo. “I was rattled, so it wasn’t a clean shot. But it still hit his leg.”

Echo turned to look at Roan with a pensive look on her face. “He should survive that,” she reassured, and Raven let out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding.

“Clarke!” she heard someone shout, and she turned around to see Abby Griffin running up to them. Then, she pulled Clarke into a tight hug.

“Have you heard anything?” Clarke asked as Abby pulled back and surveyed the others.

“Yeah, he just got out of surgery,” she said with a huge grin on her face, and the rest of them let out a simultaneous sigh of relief.

“He’s going to be okay?” Clarke confirmed, and her mother nodded along enthusiastically.


	23. Because I Have You

_Roan_

 

“Why did you leave the house?” Detective David Miller asked.

“He dismissed all of us once his meeting with Wallace began. You’ll have to ask him why,” Roan replied calmly, leaning back in his chair. The other detective in the room was looking at him suspiciously, not that Roan blamed her.

“What was his meeting with Wallace about?” he continued, jotting something down on the paper in front of him.

“It was about the Dax case. I’m sure you all know that Dax was who probably killed that witness. They might have been negotiating some way to settle this out of court, especially given the recent tragedy in the DA’s life,” Roan suggested, which earned a nod from the other detective.

All things considered, this was going pretty well. It wasn’t like they had any reason to suspect Roan, or any of them really. If what Clarke and Bellamy said was true, Marcus’ 911 call solved the case for them. These questions were just a formality.

“Do you think Dax had motive to hurt Marcus Kane or Dante Wallace?” he sighed, and Roan had to struggle not to roll his eyes. Of course, Dax had motive. That boy had too much motive and a well-documented history of murderous outbursts.

“Well, the motive for Wallace is pretty obvious, don’t you think?” Roan retorted, and Detective Miller let out a huff. “He’s the man gunning to put the death penalty back on the table. That’s motive enough for Dax, I think. For Marcus, it’s less clear,” Roan sighed. “I wish I could tell you more about their relationship, but I don’t know much about it. I just know that Marcus was having mixed feelings about taking Dax on as a client.”

After a few more softball questions, Roan was dismissed from questioning. He walked back into the lobby, seeing one too many familiar faces waiting for their turn.

“Mr. Blake, can you come with us?” Detective Miller requested, and a perfectly calm Bellamy brushed past Roan to head back with the detectives.

Roan glanced over at Echo, who just shook her head at him, apparently hearing the question in Roan’s head before he could even verbalize it. But just an hour ago, all of them were too rattled. And now? Perfectly calm, even Murphy.

He plopped down next to Echo. “How?” was all Roan whispered.

“None of us killed anyone tonight. It’s just a fact, and it calmed them all down,” Echo whispered, keeping her eyes fixed toward the front desk. Roan clenched his jaw, realizing that was technically true. The only person who committed murder was Marcus Kane, and no one in their right mind would suspect him since he got shot from the same gun.

None of them took a life tonight, technically. But it sure felt like they did.

 

_Raven_

 

“What is the nature of your relationship with Monty Green?” Detective Miller asked.

“Why is that relevant?” Raven retorted, cocking her head to the side.

“Because you claim to have gone to his apartment after leaving Marcus Kane’s house. Is he your boyfriend?”

“Oh, God no,” Raven snapped, which caused Detective Miller to blink a few times. “But out of all the interns, he’s my closest friend. I have a girlfriend, he has a girlfriend… it’s not like that.”

“And why didn’t you go home to your girlfriend when you were dismissed from work for the night?”

“Because Monty and I like to talk shop, and Luna gets a little judgy about some of the clients we take on,” Raven lied, but the detective seemed to buy it as he jotted that down.

Then, she heard the door swing open, and she turned around in her seat to see a much younger man march on in.

“Detective Miller, I’ll take it from here,” the man announced, and Raven glanced back at the detective, seeing an annoyed look flash across his face.

“I’m in the middle of an investigation,” Detective Miller said with a stern face.

“And the Bureau is taking it over. Your captain will explain the situation to you,” the younger man replied, and in a huff, Detective Miller got up from his seat.

Once the door was shut, the younger man sat down across from Raven.

“What the hell was that?” Raven snapped, and his lips formed into a small smirk.

“Sorry, I’m Agent Lincoln Woods,” he said, pulling out his badge to show Raven. “Don’t worry, you’re not a suspect or anything. But we’ve been investigating Dante Wallace for several years now, and we want to make sure we are thorough in our investigation.”

Raven’s mind immediately jumped back to the loud gun shot, followed by the sound of Wallace’s body falling to the ground.

“I’m not sure how I can help your investigation,” Raven replied, tapping her fingers on her knee nervously.

“You can start by telling me everything you learned about Dante Wallace over the last year and a half,” Lincoln replied, and Raven furrowed her brows. She had a feeling that Wallace was probably corrupt, especially since Clarke’s family was deeply involved with him. But there wasn’t anything she could say without outing Clarke.

“I honestly didn’t interact with him much,” Raven replied, leaving out that she was literally holding him by the arm so that he couldn’t attack Clarke just hours ago. “He was the DA and I worked for a defense attorney. I just know that he and Kane were competitive in the court room.”

 

_Murphy_

 

“None of us killed anyone tonight,” Bellamy reminded, but it did little to calm Murphy’s nerves… especially since the FBI was now on the damn case.

“Miss Griffin?” the agent called out, and Clarke stood up. “Nice to meet you. I’m Agent Lincoln Woods. I just want to verify what happened tonight,” he heard him say, but Murphy’s eyes were fixed on the strange look on Bellamy’s face.

“What?” Murphy snapped, but Bellamy held up his hand, keeping his eyes fixed on Clarke and the FBI agent making their way down the hallway. Once they were gone, Bellamy just shook his head slightly.

Murphy rolled his eyes, before facing forward. Of course, he was being left for last. Monty and Raven took off a while ago, and Echo and Roan went back to the hospital.

The longer Clarke was back there, the more Bellamy started to be visibly nervous as well. This was the first time since the hospital that Murphy had been alone with Bellamy. He was itching to ask Bellamy _why_ he told the others that he was the one who shot Kane, jumping in before Murphy even got the chance to tell them what actually happened. But Murphy couldn’t ask him something like that while literally sitting in a police station.

When the FBI agent and Clarke made their way back in, Murphy sucked in a breath. He knew what he had to say, he had been rehearsing it in his head… he could do this.

“John Murphy,” he called out, and Murphy stood up quickly, following after the agent. He just had to get this over with. Kane would corroborate the story. No one except the four of them would know what really happened in that house. No one would find out Murphy shot him.

The first few questions were pretty simple, asking about the timeline of how things played out tonight. Then, he started asking about Dante Wallace, which Murphy didn’t have much to say about.

“What about Dax?” the agent asked, leaning back in his chair with a pensive look on his face.

“I mean, I was pretty clear to Kane that I thought he was guilty,” Murphy huffed, and that caught the agent’s attention. “Look, we take on a lot of questionable clients, okay? And Dax seemed like the worst of all of them.”

“Is it possible that Dax could have overheard these concerns you had?” he asked, and Murphy knew the honest answer was no. Murphy wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t about to go off to Kane if there was a chance Dax could overhear. That kid is a murderer and Murphy doesn’t have a death wish. But Murphy also knew that Dax needed to have motive for what they were framing him for.

“Yeah, I think he did. Have you found him yet?” Murphy deflected.

 

_Marcus_

 

It was too bright for him to open his eyes. He tried to shift into a more comfortable position, but a throbbing pain shot through his leg.

“Careful,” he heard a familiar voice whisper.

“Where am I?” he murmured, feeling a warm hand touch his cheek.

“You’re in the hospital,” Abby said, her voice sounding close. “You were shot.”

Marcus’ eyes flew open to see a blurry Abby Griffin sitting beside him. “I was shot,” he repeated, furrowing his brows as he thought that over. That’s right, he was shot. John Murphy shot him, and Marcus asked him to do it.

 “Do you remember what happened?” Abby asked, her voice sounding slightly different than it usually did. Marcus clenched his eyes shut again, the light being too much for him.

He remembered that he shot Dante Wallace. He remembered making the 911 call. He remembered desperately trying to get Bellamy to shoot him. Then, Clarke tried… and Murphy succeeded.

“Dax,” was all Marcus could get out. He was too tired, too hazy to keep talking. And he didn’t want to let the truth slip out while he was like this… he needed to have his head on straight before commenting on what happened.

“Okay, you need to rest. I’ll be right here when you wake up,” Abby said, and he felt something grab his hand… probably Abby’s hand.

“You don’t have to stay,” he whispered, adjusting his head on the pillow behind him.

“I want to stay,” she corrected, and Marcus forced himself to open his eyes again. She was still blurry in front of him, but he could make out those defiantly furrowed eyebrows of hers, and he couldn’t help but smirk. “You almost died tonight. Please, don’t put me through this ever again.” Then, his smirk dropped.

 

_Monty_

 

“What do I even say to her?” Raven whispered, looking out the passenger side window up at her apartment building. Monty swallowed, not sure what to tell Raven. He wasn’t even sure how to talk to Harper when he gets home.

“It’s different this time,” Monty replied, thinking back to the conversation all of them had at the hospital. In theory, it _was_ different. Marcus was the one who actually killed someone tonight. Bellamy didn’t kill Marcus, just shot him. They weren’t spending their night burning a body out in the woods.

“She’s going to ask me if I’m okay. She’s going to be so supportive and loving because that’s just the kind of person she is, and I’m not going to be able to tell her the truth, again. It’s not different,” Raven snapped, and Monty pressed his lips tightly together.

For Monty and Raven, it wasn’t different. Not really. Both of them were witnesses to a murder all over again, and the only thing they were guilty of was trying to protect their friends. Neither of them have ever killed someone, yet still have to lie to the people they care about just to keep themselves safe.

“No, it is different,” Monty decided, and Raven raised an eyebrow at him. “Marcus lived.”

“Wallace died,” Raven countered, and Monty thought back to when he walked in on the altercation between Wallace and Clarke…

“Wallace came there to kill Clarke. I’m sure of it,” Monty huffed, leaning back in his chair. “Jaha didn’t have to die, but Wallace did. I mean, I don’t know what his motive was, but he was going to _kill_ Clarke.”

“Maybe it is different,” Raven whispered, looking down at her hands.

Monty didn’t say anything in response, and Raven didn’t move to get out of the car. It was clear neither of them were ready to face the real world just yet.

At least Harper already knew about what happened tonight since she was following the news… so maybe she would spare Monty the questions for a little while.

“Can we drive around for a little bit? I’m not ready,” Raven asked, and Monty nodded, putting his car back into drive.

 

_Bellamy_

 

“Okay, who is he?” Bellamy asked as soon as the door shut behind him.

“Who?” Clarke asked, and he narrowed his eyes at her. She knew damn well who Bellamy was asking about. “Lincoln is a friend of mine.”

Bellamy cocked his head to the side, waiting for more of an explanation for what he saw than that. He knows Clarke, and he knows the look of panic that she should have had when they found out the FBI was taking over the investigation. But that’s not what he saw. No, he saw a look of recognition.

“He is who you’ve been leaking information to, isn’t he?” Bellamy asked, and Clarke pressed her lips together and nodded. “Should we be worried?”

“I don’t think so. He was careful as he spoke to me, which makes me think he’s being monitored,” Clarke sighed, and Bellamy crossed over to her. He could start to feel the weight of tonight fall onto his shoulders as he walked. It was just hours ago that Wallace was killed, that Clarke almost died. Since that moment, Bellamy had been on the verge of falling apart… holding himself together just long enough to get himself home. “I think he volunteered for the investigation just so he could keep a better eye on me.”

Bellamy’s jaw twitched. He trusted Clarke, he did. But she had been wrong about people before. She had no idea what kind of person Jaha was. She never saw Cage being Wells’ murderer coming. Bellamy didn’t like the idea of Clarke putting her safety in the hands of yet another person who could turn out to be a monster too.

“Hey, we’re okay,” Clarke whispered, Bellamy’s concern apparently obvious enough for her to read. “They just needed our statements. My mom texted me that Kane woke up and is okay. We got through tonight.”

“Clarke,” he groaned because she was changing the subject.

Then, she grabbed his hand, placing it right on her stomach. Her blue eyes were gazing up at up at him, practically pleading with him. “We _all_ got through tonight,” she whispered, and Bellamy closed the gap between them, burying his face into the crook of her neck, keeping his hand firmly on her stomach.

“How are you so calm right now?” he whispered into her skin, and Clarke let out a deep breath.

“Because I have you,” she replied, and Bellamy pulled back to look at her serious expression. “I know I’ll be okay as long as I have you.” And he didn’t hesitate to crash his lips into hers.

It was probably too harsh. He was probably holding her face too tightly. Her lips were practically assaulting his. And Clarke was pulling on his neck to get him closer. There was nothing gentle about how desperate they were to hold onto each other.

He started walking her back to the bedroom, the two of them bumping into every possible obstacle on the way. The lamp, the couch, the end table… all collateral damage because Bellamy couldn’t pull his lips from Clarke’s long enough to see where they were going.

“I love you,” he pleaded desperately against her lips, before letting his lips trail down her beautiful neck. “Fuck, I love you so much,” he murmured, and Clarke started tugging his jacket off.

“And I love you,” she replied breathlessly, and Bellamy pulled his jacket the rest of the way off, throwing it to the ground quickly. Then, Clarke captured his face between her hands with a strange look in her eyes. “Were you serious about what you said earlier?”

“Which thing I said earlier?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at her. It had been a long night, and a million things had been said between now and when Wallace’s body hit the floor.

“That you want to spend your life with me. You said you wanted to marry me,” she whispered almost as if it were a question. Bellamy’s hands slid over Clarke’s, which were still resting on his cheeks. “I know it was kind of a crazy night and a lot of things were said and if you didn’t mean it—”

“I meant it, Clarke,” he interrupted, and her eyes widened as she beamed up at him. “Did you mean what you said? When you promised we could have all that?”

“I meant it,” she whispered quickly, and a ghost of a smile found its way onto Bellamy’s lips for just a few moments before Clarke pressed a slow kiss to his lips. He practically whimpered into her mouth as soon as her lips parted.

Then, they were back to pulling at each other’s clothes like there wasn’t enough time to slow down for even a moment. Shoes were kicked off as shirts were thrown in the general direction of his dresser. And her pants were being yanked off just seconds after she laid back on his bed.

“Shh, I’m going to take care of you,” Bellamy whispered as he pressed small kisses up the inside of her thigh. His fingers hooked into her panties as she lifted her hips for him. He couldn’t pull them off quickly enough.

He settled himself down between her legs, feeling his own arousal press into the mattress. He pressed a slow kiss just an inch away from her folds, before a whimper escaped Clarke’s lips. He smirked up at her. “Impatient princess,” he teased, and she just bit her lip, nodding slightly. Then, he pressed a slower kiss to her folds, and was immediately met with Clarke gripping his curls between her fingers, pushing him impatiently to where she desperately needed him.

He pulled back, looking up at her with his brows raised. He would gladly give her whatever it was she wanted, as long as she said the magic word.

“Please,” she finally conceded, and with a smirk he let his tongue lick up her slit. He immediately spread her folds out, slowly pressing a finger inside of her. Clarke sucked in a breath, and Bellamy’s mouth latched onto her clit.

She hadn’t loosened her grip of his hair, and he _loved_ it. She could feel her pull slightly whenever he pressed another finger inside of her, and she stopped pulling whenever he sucked on her clit.

“Fuck, fuck,” Clarke whimpered when he pressed a third finger into her, and Bellamy glanced up at his beautiful girl. Her head was thrown back and she was biting down hard on her lip. Her chest was rising and falling quickly.

He replaced his fingers with his tongue, diving in quickly. He knew that Clarke was right on the edge, that she was about to lose herself so perfectly right on his tongue… and he _needed_ it.

“Bellamy, Bell, just please,” she murmured breathlessly, and he could feel her legs start to get shaky around him. He thrust his tongue into her like a man starved, loving the feeling of Clarke pulling his hair desperately as his tongue fucked into her.

And when she screamed his name, he was lost. He pressed slow kisses around her pussy as she recovered. He stole a few glances up at her, loving the soft smile plastered on her face.

“Bellamy, I need you,” she finally whispered, and Bellamy’s lips travelled up to her waist. His hands were resting on her sides, as he pressed a particularly long kiss to her stomach.

“What do you need, princess?” he asked innocently.

“Get up here and I’ll show you,” she replied with a smirk.

 

_Echo_

 

According to the news, the police found Dax right where Echo had left him, except he was fully conscious and very confused. Echo almost felt bad until she remembered all the horrible things the kid had already done. What’s another life sentence on top of the others he’s likely going to get?

“Turn that off,” Roan snapped, slowly stepping out of his room.

“Go back to sleep,” Echo muttered.

“You know there is no way in hell I can sleep right now. And neither can you,” he replied, but Echo didn’t take her eyes off the screen.

They had been back at their apartment for hours after checking on Marcus again. Apparently, he had woken up for a little while, but fell back asleep. They decided that they would try to get a bit of sleep before trying to see him again.

“We need to talk about what to do with Lincoln,” Echo sighed, leaning back as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“We’re not what he’s after, remember? This looks like an open and shut case. He won’t come after us,” Roan explained, plopping down on the other side of the couch. Roan had a point. Lincoln was after someone much larger than any of them. And it wasn’t like he had reason to think that any of them would kill Wallace. “There is nothing that we need to do about Lincoln except let him do his job. He’s clearly only taking this case so he has a cover to look into the people that Wallace was involved with.”

Echo leaned forward to grab the remote, turning off the tv. “I’m going to bed,” she huffed, pushing herself off the couch.

“Echo,” Roan snapped, and she whipped her head around to look at him.

“Leave me alone,” she growled, which was probably the worst thing she could say in this situation because it made Roan stand up and move toward her. “Stop. This has been a nightmare. I drugged and framed a kid, Marcus shot the DA, and Bellamy shot Marcus.”

“Marcus would have shot himself if he had to,” Roan muttered, and Echo cocked her head to the side. “You weren’t there, Echo. He wasn’t okay after he shot Wallace. Honestly, he hasn’t been okay since he killed Ontari. He fucking snapped tonight.”

“He basically bullied the three of them to shoot him. And you left, which meant you couldn’t talk sense into him!” Echo blurted out, and Roan’s jaw clenched. And she instantly regretted placing any blame on him. This wasn’t on him. This was on Marcus. What was on them was that neither of them realized how much Marcus had been falling apart over the last few months… because it would take a lot to drive a person to believe that shooting themselves was the best and only solution.

“You weren’t there either,” Roan said calmly, and Echo’s chest tightened. “And if you had been there, you would have left just like I did, because _no one_ could have realized what was going on in his head.”

“I’m sorry,” Echo murmured, looking down at the ground.

“Also, I’m not so sure Bellamy was the one to take the shot,” Roan said, and Echo’s jerked up to look at him in confusion. “I think he was lying to us about that part.”

“Why would he do that?” Echo huffed.

“Why did Clarke let me think that she killed Jaha?” Roan groaned, and Echo clenched her eyes shut. _Bellamy was covering for Clarke_.

“No,” Echo decided. That couldn’t be right. Clarke wouldn’t shoot Marcus. She was barely recovering from beating Cage to death. There was no way she could do that in her state. “Clarke wouldn’t have.”

“I’d like to think that none of them would have. But one of them shot Marcus. We at least know that,” Roan huffed. “And Clarke isn’t in a great place. She’s got the most to lose here, and Marcus probably gave one hell of a speech to convince her to do it.”

“Bellamy has just as much to lose, and literally killed Jaha to protect Clarke. He would be willing to shoot Marcus if it meant Clarke and he stayed safe,” Echo countered, and Roan pressed his lips together.

“I’m telling you, he was lying about something. He was a little too eager to admit he shot someone,” Roan muttered, shaking his head.

“Well, that just leaves Murphy,” Echo snorted, and Roan rolled his eyes before moving back to the couch. “Wait,” she whispered, and Roan turned around with the same intrigued expression on his face. It could have been Murphy. If Roan was right about Bellamy lying, that meant it had to be Clarke or Murphy… but Clarke wouldn’t have butchered that shot. She had been trained too well for that, and would have had a little bit of time to line up the shot.

Then, Roan rushed back to his room, as Echo started pacing back and forth in the living room. _Murphy took the shot_. It was the only explanation that made sense.

“I’m going to his apartment right now,” Roan huffed, pulling on his jacket.

“No, I will,” Echo argued. She didn’t need Roan scaring the kid. And all they needed to do was make sure he could get through this, that he was keeping calm enough that he wouldn’t break under the pressure. Clarke and Bellamy could handle it without them, but Murphy had never done something like this before…. He needed someone.

“Alright, it’s agreed. We’re both going,” he snapped, raising an eyebrow.

 

_Clarke_

 

“You could have warned me,” Clarke called out as Lincoln stepped out of his car.

“Well, I didn’t exactly get a lot of warning myself, Clarke. A man did just unexpectedly get shot,” Lincoln retorted, crossing over toward Clarke. She crossed her arms, nervously waiting for him to tell her whatever it was that he needed from her this time. “And I can’t tell you much about what I’ve learned so far.”

“What can you tell me?” Clarke asked, cocking her head to the side.

“That I have an angle I can work with,” Lincoln said cautiously with furrowed brows, and Clarke’s eyes widened. “You and Bellamy would be able to disappear for a little while, provided I get the testimony I need to bring everyone down.”

“What testimony?” Clarke asked nervously. This was never part of the deal. She couldn’t have her name attached to what happened, or else she and Bellamy would spend the rest of their lives on the run from her family.

“Not yours,” Lincoln sighed, and Clarke narrowed her eyes in confusion. “You haven’t been a witness to anything big enough. But you know someone who has.”

“Lincoln,” Clarke warned, not liking where this is going.

“I need you to figure out where Abby Griffin’s allegiances lie, Clarke. She has a well-documented history of not being on board with what her father has been doing. She’s made it clear she doesn’t want her only child involved in it. I have to believe that there’s a part of her that might be willing to testify,” Lincoln explained, but Clarke just started shaking her head.

Clarke had no idea if her mother could be trusted with this. And if her mother ever let what Clarke has been up to slip… well, it would be _over_.

“She would have the same immunity offer I’ve given you. And I know you two have a complicated history, but given your current predicament…” Lincoln said, gesturing to Clarke in a way that made her nervous. Somehow, he knew exactly how urgent her situation is without her ever telling him.  “I have to believe that she would do what it took to protect her daughter.”

“Do you have any idea what kind of risk this is?” Clarke snapped, before Lincoln shushed her… and Clarke remembered where they were.

“You don’t have time on your side, Clarke,” Lincoln reminded her, and she bit her lip. “And I’m not saying you tell your mother what you’ve been up to. I’m just suggesting that you try to get a feel for where she stands on the issue of your family.”

“Tell me why this plan is a good one. Convince me,” Clarke huffed. After the last twenty-four hours, she was done trusting people’s plans. Marcus had a damn plan, and he ended up shot.

“You, Bellamy, and Abby would all get far away from here before anything happened. If Abby isn’t offered an immunity deal, there is no other way she will get out of this unscathed. The two of you have had too many illegal trades made under your names. This is her best shot,” Lincoln broke it down, and Clarke took a nervous step backwards. “After going through some of Wallace’s documents, I know exactly what I need from her. And this plan doesn’t involve me going after smaller targets. I take your grandfather out first, and afterwards everyone else will fall quickly.”

“Am I looking at a witness protection situation in the meantime?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.

“For all of you, yes,” he confirmed, and he was starting to win Clarke over… slowly.

“I’ll get back to you,” Clarke decided, turning around to get back in her car.

“And, Clarke?” Lincoln called out, and she turned around to look back at him. “Dax’s new lawyer seems to be pushing toward a plea deal. This will be taken care of quickly and out of court… and I’m sorry about what happened to your professor.”

Clarke swallowed, feeling a slight twinge of guilt course through her. “Me too,” she whispered, before opening her car door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Years!


	24. I Can't Forgive You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, we're starting to reach the end here, folks. Things are going to start wrapping up soon and I'm doing epilogue planning (if you have any particular epilogue requests, lmk)

_Echo_

 

Of course, Murphy wasn’t answering his damn door. Echo started to pick the lock, checking over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching. She _hated_ when it was her turn to check on Murphy.

“Get out of bed,” Echo shouted, marching into his apartment. And there he was, still in bed at noon with a pillow over his head.

“This is breaking and entering,” Murphy grumbled, and Echo crossed her arms.

“What are you going to do? Call the cops on me?” she teased, and Murphy sat upright with a scowl on his face.

“This is why I prefer when Clarke babysits me,” he muttered, and Echo rolled her eyes.

“Well, Clarke babies you. Get out of bed and go take a shower,” Echo snapped, and Murphy threw his covers off his bed, marching toward his bathroom with a loud groan.

This was about how every interaction Echo had with Murphy went these days. According to the other kids, he had stopped going to class altogether for the past week. It wouldn’t hurt his grades or anything. In fact, all of Marcus’ interns seemed to get a free pass given the circumstances. But they were all still worried about Murphy. And Emori had taken on a new job, meaning Murphy spent a little too much time by himself during the day.

She waited patiently for Murphy to get ready, reading through the news on her phone. It had been a whole week since the shooting took place, and it all anyone was talking about. Logically, she knew it was almost over. But she wouldn’t feel like it was over until Dax went away for this.

“How is Kane?” Murphy asked, and Echo’s head jerked up. She hadn’t even heard him come back in.

“He’s making his statement today,” Echo replied, and Murphy’s eyes went downcast. “And he’s feeling better,” she added in, realizing that was what he really wanted to know.

“Good,” Murphy whispered, and Echo let out a sigh. Out of all of them, Murphy was the only one who didn’t go back to the hospital after that night. In fact, he hadn’t seen Marcus since he shot him. And Murphy wasn’t going to be able to move on from this until he actually got the chance to talk to Marcus about what the hell happened that night.

“We could go over to the house and see him, if you want,” Echo offered, but Murphy waved her off. He sat down across from her, tying his shoe with a scowl on his face.

This was exactly like how Roan had described Murphy being two days ago. Honestly, Echo doesn’t remember having this kind of reaction the first time she killed someone. She had thought that it would be easier for Murphy, especially since he hadn’t actually killed anyone. But looking at him now, she realized why it wasn’t any easier. It wasn’t the killing that ruined a person… it’s the knowledge that they _could_ kill someone, if the conditions demanded it.

“You know that you didn’t have a choice, right?” Echo said, and Murphy’s head shot up. “He called the cops and said he got shot. He forced your hand.”

“I am very much aware of that,” Murphy growled through gritted teeth, and she narrowed her eyes at him.

“I’m trying to remind you that none of this is your fault,” Echo tried again, but it wasn’t right. Nothing she ever said seemed to be right, anyway. She wasn’t good with words like Marcus. She wasn’t a calming presence like Roan. She wasn’t what Murphy needed. She didn’t know what Murphy needed.

 

_Roan_

 

Roan helped Marcus get back into the car, before walking around to the driver’s side. He didn’t say a word as he started the car, not even bothering to ask how his testimony went. Roan already kind of knew. Marcus would have said that Dax showed up to the house while he was meeting with Dante. Dax shot Dante first, then Marcus, before running out of the house. Marcus would apologize a hundred times that he didn’t have more information for them. He would explain in that mock-flustered way of his that he was too preoccupied with getting to his phone to see where Dax went.

“You’re still angry with me,” Marcus said, and Roan’s jaw clenched.

“Do you blame me?” Roan huffed, and Marcus was quiet for a few minutes.

“No,” Marcus finally whispered, leaning his head back on the headrest. Roan fixed his eyes back on the road, letting out a sigh. “I killed Ontari. I killed Dante. I bullied those kids into shooting me.”

“I don’t give a shit about Ontari or Dante. Ontari is old news. And you were protecting Clarke by killing Dante,” Roan snapped. “But what you did after Dante died… that is why we’re all still angry with you.”

“How is Murphy?” Marcus asked.

“Traumatized,” Roan growled. “Guess I’d prefer that to him being apathetic, though.”

“I’m sorry,” Marcus replied, and Roan sucked in a deep breath.

“Out of everyone, I’m one of the last people you should be giving that apology to. You know that at the end of the day, I’ll forgive you. Echo, too,” Roan conceded with a huff. Yeah, Marcus gave him a damn heart attack. But no one died… other than Dante, of course. The plan seemed to be working, no matter how stupid it was. But Roan wasn’t in the house when the second shot happened. The apologies needed to be given to Murphy, Bellamy, and Clarke. They were the only ones who were really suffering for what Marcus did.

“I don’t even know what I would say to them,” Marcus sighed, and Roan nodded along.

“You’ll figure it out. In the meantime, if you ever pull a stunt like that again, you’re on your own,” Roan reminded, forcing a small chuckle.

 

_Bellamy_

 

He woke up to feeling Clarke pushing hair off his face.

“What time is it?” he murmured, not opening his eyes just yet. He remembered coming home exhausted and giving in to a nap… but that could have been hours ago.

“Just after seven,” Clarke whispered, and he could feel her press a kiss to his forehead. He opened his eyes slowly, and Clarke was sitting up against the headboard with a pensive look on her face.

Right, she would have just gotten home from seeing her mom. “How did it go?” he asked, and Clarke pressed her lips together as she glanced down at him. He let out a sigh, propping himself up.

She had been a nervous wreck for days, wondering if Lincoln was right or not. Bellamy wanted to believe that Lincoln was right, that they should trust Abby Griffin. After all, she was Clarke’s mother.

“I just don’t know,” Clarke sighed, resting her head on his shoulder. Bellamy grabbed her hand, interlacing her fingers with his. “It’s frustrating because I don’t really know how to ask my mom for help. I would always go to my dad first, and he would help me figure out how to talk to her.”

“I’m sorry,” Bellamy finally replied, not sure what else he could say. He didn’t really know Abby Griffin. All he knew was that he hated that he and Clarke’s future could potentially rely completely on this woman… who Clarke had a complicated relationship with.

“I know that if she knew all the facts that she would help… or at least I’m fairly certain she will. I mean, she didn’t even want me back in this in the first place. I’m her daughter,” Clarke explained, and Bellamy kissed the top of her head.

“I know,” he sighed.

“And if that’s not enough, the fact that they tried to force me into marrying the person who killed Wells and likely helped Thelonious kill my dad… that should be enough to push her over, right?” Clarke asked, popping her head up to look at him.

“Clarke, I don’t know. I hope so, but I don’t know your mom,” he explained, and Clarke threw her head back in frustration. “Hey, come on. Let’s take a break,” he asked, and her bottom lip started to pout. “Nope, come on,” he decided, tugging her hand so she would follow after him.

“What are we doing?” she groaned, but she was following him into the living room anyway. He gestured for her to sit on the couch, before he started going through the few DVDs he had.

“Which Die Hard do you want to watch?” he teased, earning an immediate groan from Clarke.

“I swear to God if our baby ends up as obsessed with those movies as you are…” she muttered.

“Our baby will be obsessed, because unlike their mother, our baby will have good taste,” he retorted, and Clarke flung a pillow at him… which only made him erupt into laughter. “Okay, how about Little Miss Sunshine?”

“Oh, fuck yes. Put it in,” Clarke said excitedly, clapping her hands together.

Once Bellamy got the movie started, he settled down next to Clarke, who immediately curled up against him. “Hey, how’s baby, today?” he asked, and the cutest little grin popped onto Clarke’s face.

“Baby is great,” Clarke whispered, and he pressed a kiss to her forehead.

Clarke made it about half an hour into the movie before she inevitably fell asleep. He turned the movie off immediately, since he had seen this thing more times than he could count anyway.

“Come on, princess,” he whispered, and Clarke’s forehead scrunched up as a small groan escaped her lips. “I know, baby. I’ll carry you.”

Clarke buried her face into his chest as he picked her up. “I wasn’t sleeping,” she murmured.

“Sure, you weren’t,” he sighed as he carried her into his room. He laid her down gently, and she immediately curled up as he pulled the comforter over her.

“I’m not even tired,” she murmured, her eyes fluttering shut again.

“Of course not,” he teased, but she was already falling back asleep. “Goodnight, princess.”

“Don’t forget to say goodnight to baby,” she whispered, and Bellamy sat down on the edge of the bed.

He let his hand rest on the comforter just above where Clarke’s stomach was. They still had a few weeks before she started showing… but just the idea of being able to _see_ that Clarke was pregnant made his stomach flip with excitement.

“Goodnight, baby,” he whispered, and a ghost of a smile appeared on Clarke’s lips. “I love you both. So much.”

 

_Murphy_

 

He took another deep breath, staring at the door that he had walked in and out of so many times in the past year. Murphy could do this. He could see Kane. It wasn’t like he killed him or anything. Murphy did nothing wrong.

But it felt like he did everything wrong.

It took a good ten minutes for him to work up the courage to open the door, which was an improvement from the hours it took to work up the courage to drive here.

When he opened the door, Kane was sitting on the couch with Abby Griffin. His eyes widened as soon as he saw Murphy at the door.

“Hey, Abby. You don’t need to stay with me right now,” Kane said quickly, and Abby shot Murphy an acknowledging look before she gathered her things.

Murphy just stood there with his hands in his pockets, as Abby kissed Kane’s cheek and brushed past him on the way to the door.

“John, I’m so glad you stopped by,” Kane started as Murphy walked into the living room.

“There’s no one else here, right?” Murphy asked, his eyes jumping toward the stairs.

“No, it’s just us,” he replied. “Why don’t you sit down?”

“No, this won’t take long,” Murphy huffed, looking down at his feet. “I’ve been thinking a lot about what I have to say to you, and I think I’ve finally figured it out.”

“John.”

“I can’t forgive you,” he blurted out, and Kane’s eyes widened. “And I don’t mean for everything that happened before that night. I don’t care about Ontari anymore. I don’t care that you abandoned my dad’s case,” he explained. Of course, Murphy cared about both of those… but they were both things he could eventually work through. “I’m talking about what you forced me to do. I can’t forgive you for that.”

“Look, I know it was unfair of me to put you in that position…” Kane explained, looking down at his hands as he spoke.

“Unfair doesn’t even cover it. You gave us no choice. And sure, your plan has worked. None of us are going down for what happened to Wallace or any of the other murders that have happened in this fucking house,” Murphy spat. “But this is the first time I’ve left my apartment since that night,” he huffed, and Kane’s eyes flickered up to meet his. “I’m not sleeping. The others are all showing up every single day to babysit me because they’re terrified that I might do something stupid. And I can’t talk to my girlfriend about it because you and I both know she would likely be spooked again and run off.”

“John.”

“I shot you,” Murphy yelled. “And you had to have _known_ what that would do to me. You know what happened to you after you killed Ontari. There’s no way you could just walk that off, right?”

“The difference is that you didn’t kill me,” Kane explained calmly.

“No, but I could have,” Murphy shouted, throwing his hands up in frustration. “There were about a thousand different things that could have gone wrong. My aim could have been even more off than it was. The ambulances could have been late. A doctor could have fucked up the surgery. You could have died, and that would have been on me for the rest of my life!”

“Please, I—”

“You know, my dad got the death penalty just because he had an incompetent lawyer filling in at the last possible second. Is that what’s wrong with you? That you feel like his death is on you?” Murphy huffed, before biting down on his lip. He glanced back at Kane who had a somber look on his face. “And then, I’ve been wondering if maybe you were hoping you would die. Maybe it was an easy way out, a way to force everyone into forgiving you for all the bullshit you’ve been putting us through. Dying seems a hell of a lot easier than having to do the damn work to earn forgiveness.”

“I’m sorry!” Kane shouted, and Murphy’s jaw clenched.

“Like I said, I can’t forgive you,” he snapped. “Echo and Roan already have forgiven you. I’m sure Monty and Raven don’t even blame you. But I can’t. Maybe Bellamy and Clarke will come around, but you gave them the same choice you gave me.”

“What can I do?” Kane asked, and Murphy threw his head back in frustration.

“Go back in time. Stop yourself from picking me as one of your interns just because you feel guilty that my dad is dead,” Murphy huffed, before storming toward the front door.

 

_Raven_

 

“Okay, full disclosure, I stole a lot of muffins from my office today,” Luna huffed as she opened up the front door, and Raven slammed her book shut to look up at her. Her hair was thrown up into a ponytail and she was definitely wearing Raven’s jacket… which was an honest mistake because Raven had taken a similar one from her at least three times now. “They were just really good and I thought, ‘huh, I should bring my girlfriend a muffin.’ And then, I realized I don’t know your muffin preferences. So, I grabbed one of each and ran before my boss caught me,” she explained, and Raven threw her head back as she erupted into laughter.

She could picture it vividly… Luna sneakily creeping into the breakroom to grab a bag full of muffins like some kind of thief. Or, more realistically, she went into the breakroom multiple times, only stealing one each time to avoid drawing suspicion.

“I really don’t have a muffin preference,” Raven replied, grinning like an idiot because her girlfriend literally stole muffins for her.

“Good, because I might have eaten your chocolate chip muffin on the way home,” Luna confessed, setting her stuff down. “How are you feeling?”

Raven swallowed nervously. This had been a constant from Luna these days, constantly concerned about how Raven was holding up. “I’m fine,” Raven replied, and it wasn’t even really a lie anymore. She was panicked when it all went down, but Kane is fine now and none of them are going to jail… a certainty that Raven didn’t always have when it came to Kane’s firm.

“Raven, he almost died. You can’t honestly tell me you’re fine,” she retorted, crossing her arms with that stern look on her face… the one that said she was going to everything in her power to fix the situation, whether Raven wanted her to or not.

“I was scared when he got shot. And yeah, it freaked me out that something like that could have happened while I was in the house,” Raven said, leaving out the number of times that something like that actually did happen in that house. “But everyone is safe now, Dax is in jail… I’m fine.”

“Okay, then I have a question for you,” Luna announced, and Raven’s stomach dropped. She hated when people said that… it was a guaranteed panic attack waiting to happen. “What are you going to do next semester? Are you going to keep working for him?”

That… Raven hadn’t expected _that_. But it was also something that Raven hadn’t even thought about. She hadn’t talked to the others about what they were doing next, nor had any of them thought to talk about it. After all, it just happened.

“I don’t know,” Raven realized, blinking as she looked down at her own hands. Really there was nothing keeping her there other than her friends. But Kane worked them to death and they had all worked there long enough for it to look good on their resumes. She could easily get another internship for the spring, maybe something in corporate law that would never put her in contact with murderers.

It wasn’t like she needed to stay close to the firm to make sure that all their secrets stayed safe. Everything was done. All the murders wrapped up in a neat little bow. Ontari’s body would never be found. Dax was going down for Wallace.

“Look, I know you like it there, but it scares me to think that you might want to go back to that firm. From what I’ve learned, Kane gets involved with some dangerous people. And it’s not like you even want to go into criminal law,” Luna broke it down, and Raven furrowed her brows. Everything Luna was saying was correct. But Raven couldn’t make this decision without talking to the others.

“I’ll think about it,” Raven murmured as Luna plopped down on the couch next to her. “It’s just not a simple decision. These people are…”

“Family?” Luna asked, and Raven rested her head on Luna’s shoulder. Yeah, family. A really strange, messed up family… but _her_ strange, messed up family.

 

_Clarke_

 

“Bellamy, why are there so many post-it notes in this book?” Clarke asked, holding up the newest pregnancy book they had gotten.

“I put a post-it note on every page where I had a question,” Bellamy shouted from the kitchen, as Clarke flipped through the pages. There was a post-it note on every other page.

“Bell—,” Clarke started before being interrupted by someone knocking on the door. Then, she moved down the hallway to open the door. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at home resting,” Clarke snapped, as Kane hobbled into the apartment on his crutches. Then, Bellamy popped his head out of the kitchen, shooting Clarke a confused look about Kane showing up.

“I wanted to talk to you both,” he huffed, making his way into the living room.

“What do you think this is about?” Bellamy whispered, and Clarke just shrugged. Kane didn’t just show up places. No, he summoned people to his house.

“Well, I feel like he’s not in the physical condition to kill us, so let’s find out,” Clarke muttered, and Bellamy shot her a warning look. “I’m kidding,” she huffed, although she was only kind of kidding. After everything they have all been through, she’d have to be an idiot not to at least consider that possibility.

“Professor Kane, what is going on?” Bellamy asked as he walked into the living room.

“I wanted to see how you two were doing,” he replied, and Bellamy shot Clarke an incredulous look.

“We’re fine. What do you want?” Clarke snapped, plopping down on the chair across from the couch. Bellamy sat on the armrest beside her, keeping his eyes fixed on Kane.

“I wouldn’t call your current situation fine,” Kane said, and Clarke swallowed. She wasn’t an idiot. She knew there was a very real chance that Kane knew what she and Bellamy were dealing with. Either he figured it out on his own, or Echo and Roan let enough slip to help him get there. “I want to know if I can help.”

Clarke narrowed her eyes at him, but he seemed relatively sincere. It wasn’t like Kane was ever insincere when it came to offering help… but after what happened at the house, Clarke had good reason not to trust his methods. “There is nothing you can do to help. Do you want one of us to drive you home?” she snapped.

“Wait,” Bellamy said, and Clarke glanced up at him with an annoyed glare. They didn’t want his help. His help is what led to Ontari dying. His help is what led to the ridiculous plan to shoot him. “Clarke, can I talk to you for a second?”

She groaned as she followed him into the kitchen. “What could he possibly help us with?” Clarke groaned, and Bellamy cocked his head to the side.

“Your mother,” he replied, and Clarke furrowed her brows. “Look, you don’t know if you can convince her to help you, but maybe you and Kane can.”

“What?” Clarke huffed.

“She’s in love with him, and he loves her too. She’d be willing to hear him out, and he already knows all about your crazy family situation. Between the two of you, you stand a much better chance of convincing her,” he explained, and Clarke clenched her jaw. He was right, of course. And Kane had a way with words… he would be a very convincing partner in this.

“What if you’re wrong?” Clarke had to ask, and Bellamy’s eyes dropped to the ground as he thought that over. She took a deep breath, peering around the corner to see Kane still sitting in the living room.

“You’ll be able to tell if your mom will help based on her reaction, right?” Bellamy asked, and Clarke turned back to look at him and nodded. “Then, if we think she’s gonna tell the family what you’ve been doing, we run immediately. We can have our stuff packed in the trunk ready to go.”

Clarke swallowed. She was fairly certain it wouldn’t come to that. Her mother turning on them was the worst-case scenario. The more likely scenario was that she doesn’t agree to help but stays quiet.

“Okay,” Clarke whispered, walking back out toward the living room.

“Oh good. I’ve also been meaning to apologize to you both for what choice I forced you all into that night,” Kane explained, and Clarke shot a skeptical look back at Bellamy.

“We’re listening,” Bellamy snapped, and Clarke gripped onto his hand, not liking how his jaw was tensing up.

“I’m sorry. I should have opened it up for discussion. I shouldn’t have made that 911 call. I shouldn’t have tried to manipulate you all into making an impossible choice,” he explained, and Bellamy squeezed Clarke’s hand. “Will you ever be able to forgive me?”

“That depends. Were you serious about wanting to help?” Clarke asked, and Kane nodded. She sat back down, pressing her elbows onto her legs as she leaned forward. “Okay, I’m assuming you already know that I’m pregnant.”

“And I know that you killed Cage Wallace,” Kane replied, and Clarke’s eyes widened. There was no way Echo or Roan let that slip… but Kane was a smart man. The timing of it all was probably how he figured it out. “And I know that you and Echo have been working to get you out of the family, which I can only imagine has gotten even more difficult with your current… situation,” he explained, gesturing to Clarke, and Bellamy let out a huff.

“You are not wrong,” Clarke sighed, feeling Bellamy’s hand resting on her back. “And now, all I need is one person’s testimony to finally end this once and for all. Then, Bellamy and I can be in witness protection until it all blows over.”

“Whose testimony, Clarke?” Kane asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

“My mother’s. But I need help convincing her,” Clarke said, watching his eyes widen in response. “She’d be given full immunity for anything she’s done and will get to go in witness protection too. She’d be completely safe.”

“We’re scared that Clarke won’t be able to convince her on her own…” Bellamy sighed, and Kane looked down at the ground with furrowed brows.

“It is guaranteed that she will get immunity and get witness protection?” he asked, and Clarke nodded. “And you trust this deal?” he followed up, looking skeptically at Clarke.

“I’m betting a lot more than just my life on it, Kane,” she replied, raising an eyebrow at him. Kane’s eyes moved toward Bellamy before looking back at Clarke.

“Okay, fine. But you have to tell me absolutely everything first. And I want to see this deal in writing.”

 

_Monty_

 

He looked at all his books laid out in front of him, and he wanted to pass out. Monty didn’t know how the others were able to keep up with their schoolwork… but he was so behind.

“So, I have a bunch of Red Bulls in the fridge and I grabbed some more of the extra big notecards that you like,” Harper explained, but Monty’s eyes were fixed on the list of things he needed to have read by next Monday.

“I hate law school,” he muttered, and Harper sat down next to him, rubbing his shoulders softly.

“Then quit,” she said, and Monty shook his head.

“I can’t quit,” he huffed.

“I mean, you _can_ … technically speaking,” Harper replied, and Monty looked up at her. He knew she was just pointing out that there was always another option… but something clicked for Monty that he had never thought about before.

“I could quit,” he realized. Monty could literally drop out if he wanted to, get his tuition check back and everything. There was literally nothing _forcing_ him to do any of this. “Could I just quit?” he asked, and Harper’s lips quirked upwards.

“I mean, you could if that’s what you want to do. You always could have,” she explained.

“No, I couldn’t have when my mom was still in the picture. She wouldn’t have let me. But I _could_ now,” he whispered before tossing the list back onto the coffee table. “I mean, I don’t know if that’s what I want. But I could take some time off, maybe come back next year,” he realized, wondering why this never occurred to him before.

“If I had known you would consider it, I would have talked to you about this sooner,” Harper said enthusiastically, and Monty let his head rest on Harper’s shoulder. “Like I know there are parts of law that you really like and all…”

“Theoretically, yes. In practice, not so much,” he huffed. In fact, working for Kane had been _miserable_. And sure, a different internship would have given him a much different experience. But Monty had seen firsthand just how easily the system can be played. His mother was part of that system and she abused her power too. She was literally the reason he wanted to go into this in the first place.

All his role models weren’t who he thought they were, and suddenly, he wasn’t sure if he _ever_ wanted this for himself.

And it wasn’t just about everything that happened after Jaha was killed. Monty had never been happy in law school. The basic principles and theories were great, but the application wasn’t what he hoped for. He couldn’t take the anxiety of knowing that someone else’s future could be in his hands, especially when Monty didn’t want to have to do everything that Marcus Kane had to do for his clients. He couldn’t spend the rest of his life doing this… not happily.

“I really want to be happy,” Monty blurted out, and Harper cupped his face between her hands.

“Would walking away from this make you happy?” she asked, and he bit his lip. He didn’t have a clue what he would be doing next… but he had some time to figure that out.

“I think so. You sure you want to be with a potential law school dropout?” he teased, and Harper pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“Of course,” she replied. Just like that, whatever weight had been on Monty’s shoulders just vanished. And it felt _amazing_.

 

_Marcus_

 

Just like he expected, Abby didn’t hesitate to drag Clarke into another room to talk to her. What he didn’t expect was how Abby didn’t interrupt Clarke once as Clarke broke down step by step how she got in this mess. Marcus could tell that Abby was dying to say something, but he was impressed by how she kept her mouth shut until Clarke was done.

After about fifteen minutes, Marcus got up to check on them.

“There has to be another option. There is a lot at stake if this plan of yours goes south,” Abby snapped, and Marcus rested against the wall in the hallway.

“Mom, I don’t have a lot of time before I start showing and people start asking questions. Because everyone knows that what happened between me and Cage was just a business transaction,” Clarke replied, and Marcus took a deep breath.

“A business transaction that got him murdered,” Abby huffed.

“He killed Wells! He helped Thelonious kill Dad!” Clarke spat.

“Maybe we could make up some story about you doing some volunteer mission until you have the baby. My dad would never have to know what really happened,” Abby suggested.

“No! I’m having this baby with Bellamy. That is not up for negotiation. I love him. He has been the only good thing in my life since Dad died,” Clarke snapped, and Marcus forced himself to take another deep breath. Everything was going to be okay. Abby was going to come around. She had to.

“Clarke, sweetie, you’re too young to—”

“Were you too young? When you decided that he was it for you?” Clarke asked, and Marcus’ stomach dropped. He should probably leave before he overheard anything else about Jake and Abby that would cause his heart to ache. He had enough of that for one lifetime.

“This isn’t the same thing,” Abby retorted, and Marcus let out a huff.

“Bellamy is my Marcus,” Clarke whispered so quietly that Marcus barely heard it. He waited for Abby to say something, but the two of them just stood in the kitchen in complete silence.

After a few minutes, he heard footsteps coming toward him. Clarke appeared in the doorway with a frustrated expression on her face. Marcus took his cue and went into the kitchen, seeing Abby helping herself to his wine.

“It’s a little early for that, don’t you think?” Marcus teased, and Abby narrowed her eyes at him.

“Well, it’s not every day that you find out your daughter murdered her fiancée while pregnant with another man’s baby all while she has been leaking information to the FBI,” Abby retorted, raising an eyebrow at him. “How long have you known about this?”

“I figured out that she killed Cage the day after it happened, but didn’t get confirmation until later. Didn’t know she was pregnant until I had to pull over so she could throw up. And I didn’t know it was specifically the FBI she was working with,” he explained.

“You’re lucky you are already injured or else I would punch you right now,” Abby snapped, and Marcus bowed his head as he glanced back down at the floor.

“There’s a lot of that going around,” he muttered, thinking back to every individual person in his life who was pissed at him. No offense to Abby, but he had far more terrifying people who were currently angry with him.

“What am I supposed to do?”

“You’re supposed to help your daughter,” Marcus retorted, and Abby’s jaw clenched. “Abby, if you do anything else, you lose her. If your family catches her, she’s dead and so is her baby. If you don’t help her but you don’t tell the family either, she runs with her boyfriend and you never see her again. I know you don’t want to spend the rest of your life wondering what happened to her.”

She thought that over for a second as she chugged the rest of her glass.

“The deal is solid. You will be completely protected for anything that’s happened under your name. And you’ll get out of town long before any danger comes your way,” he broke it down, but she waved him off.

“What can you tell me about this Bellamy kid?” she asked as Marcus got settled at the kitchen table.

“He’s a good kid. I don’t know if there is a human being on this planet who would love your daughter more,” he sighed.

“Yeah, I got that from Clarke already,” she huffed.

“He’s saved Clarke’s life before, did she tell you that?” he asked, and that caught Abby’s attention. “Clarke wasn’t who actually killed Thelonious. That’s just what she told the family so they would make it all disappear. Bellamy killed him to get him to stop strangling your daughter.” Abby’s face went pale as she processed all of that. “Bellamy is willing to hide the rest of his life with Clarke if it means that she and the baby will stay safe. So, don’t even worry if what Clarke is doing is worth it. It is, and I think you know that.”

“Do you have any idea how many people would go down if I testify?” Abby asked, burying her face into her hands.

“Not one who didn’t deserve it,” Marcus replied. “And think about how many people’s futures you would be saving. It’s not just Clarke. Everyone in your family has kids who don’t get a choice in what happens to them. You could break the cycle.”

“Now I see why Clarke enlisted your help,” Abby sighed with a small smile.

“Eh, I don’t have the best track record of talking you out of helping the family, now do I?” he teased, and she rolled her eyes.

“Still holding onto that?” she asked.

“I could say no, but that would be a lie,” Marcus replied, and her eyes widened.

The two of them sat there in silence for a few moments, and he watched her carefully. Her resolve was starting to break. She knew there really wasn’t a choice here, and it helped that they had doing the right thing on their side.

“Clarke,” Abby called out, and a few seconds later, Clarke reemerged. “I need the agent’s contact information. He can’t contact me or else that will set off red flags. I have to reach out to him first,” she said, getting straight to business.

Marcus glanced back at Clarke, who looked like she was on the verge of tears. He offered her a nod, and she let out a sigh of relief.

For once, Marcus could say that everything was going to be okay.


	25. Time To Go Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here is the conclusion to our lovely little murder story. A bunch of time jumps. A lot of fluff. The result of a week of me reading way too many articles about baby names (enough to convince the data mining companies that I'm pregnant, so that's fun). 
> 
> Anyway, thanks for sticking with me through this strange little (not so little) story. I love you guys! I've really appreciated all the comments I've gotten, even if I haven't gotten around to responding to them all yet. You're all wonderful. I'll see you all next story!

_Marcus_

 

“To the end, however it may come,” Echo sighed, lifting her glass in the air. With a groan, Marcus leaned forward to clink glasses with her and Roan.

“We’re in the clear,” Marcus reminded them, though their faces were still skeptical about the plan. “Abby, Clarke, and Bellamy disappeared like they were supposed to, and now the real shit will begin.”

“It already begun,” Roan muttered, and Marcus raised an eyebrow at him. Roan took a long sip of his drink, before setting it down on the table. “My mom got tipped off and left the country this morning. Just to be safe, I’m doing the same.”

Marcus swallowed, realizing he hadn’t thought about how Roan could potentially be implicated in whatever Abby testified to.

“It’s just a precaution. I don’t think anything she said will be tied to me… but I’d rather not find out by having the FBI raid my apartment,” he groaned, and Marcus looked over at Echo, wondering if she was going to do the same thing.

“I’m covered,” Echo answered before he even had to ask.

“Roan, I’m sorry. I had no idea,” Marcus stammered out, but Roan waved him off.

“I agreed to this plan a while back. And I think a little time outside this city would be good for me,” he chuckled, and Marcus furrowed his brows. Roan was leaving too. Abby, Bellamy, and Clarke were already gone. Monty dropped out of law school. Raven and Murphy quit, understandably… which just left Marcus and Echo at the firm.

Once they said their goodbyes for the night, Marcus made his way upstairs. Without all of them working for him, there was no way Marcus could keep up the firm.

_But did he even want to?_

No, he didn’t. Marcus Kane didn’t want to defend rich murderers anymore. He didn’t want to take on cases that made it harder for him to sleep at night. He didn’t want to keep working in the same house where he was shot, where Thelonious, Ontari, and Dante were all killed. And he couldn’t imagine taking on any other interns, trying to replace the phenomenal group he was given. He couldn’t risk ruining anyone else’s lives like he did those five kids.

Most importantly, Marcus Kane wanted to be one of the good guys, for once. He remembered how Murphy had confronted him about taking on Emori’s case, questioning why Marcus even wanted to be a lawyer in the first place… and Murphy was right. This wasn’t what Marcus wanted to do. None of this was.

And that realization was enough to keep him up all night, searching online for other places that his services might be necessary. When it clicked, the first person he called was Echo.

“Do you have any idea what fucking time it is?” she yelled, and Marcus heard someone else in the background groaning.

“I’ll make this quick,” Marcus said. “What would you say if I said I wanted to drop the practice?”

“I’d say that’s a pretty convenient way to explain why you no longer have any employees,” she huffed.

“There’s an opening in the Public Defender’s Office,” he explained. “Doesn’t pay much, lot of hours, a pretty thankless job…”

“But you’d be able to be one of the good guys,” Echo whispered, and Marcus bit his lip. “You want to make up for some of the bad shit you’ve done, huh?”

“I want to be able to sleep at night, don’t you?” he asked, and was met with a few moments of silence as she thought that over. “Echo, I’m calling you because you need to know you don’t have to come with me. You can have a clean break.”

Echo let out a sigh, and Marcus looked over at his clock… the sun would rise in a few hours.

“And what if I want to be one of the good guys too?” Echo asked, and Marcus’ lips broke into a small smile. “I could do the same kind of work for you, but for a good reason this time.”

“If I get the job, consider yourself hired,” he smirked.

 

_Murphy_

 

“Smile, asshole,” Raven groaned, wrapping her arm around his shoulder as Monty snapped another photo.

“Okay, Emori and Luna get in this one,” Monty said excitedly, and Murphy shot Monty an annoyed look. He and Raven explicitly said they didn’t want a graduation party. It felt weird… celebrating that they had graduated law school. Especially since it was just him and Raven who actually made it. Monty dropped out a semester ago, and none of them knew when Bellamy and Clarke were coming back. It was just that this was something that the five of them were supposed to do together, after everything else they went through. It felt weird celebrating when only two of them crossed the finish line.

Emori kissed Murphy’s cheek, which jerked a smile out of him anyway, and Monty got his shot.

“Okay, we need to get going if we’re going to get good seats,” Luna reminded, and Murphy threw his head back.

“Yeah, you guys go ahead. Murphy and I don’t have to be there for another half hour,” Raven said before giving Luna a quick kiss.

“Oh, let’s just drive together to save on parking,” Monty decided, and the three of them hurried out the door. Murphy immediately glared at Raven, who was pulling something out of her purse.

“Don’t tell me you’re gonna get all sappy on me, Reyes,” he groaned, and Raven immediately slapped his arm. Then, he saw she was holding an envelope, and his stomach dropped.

“Kane told me you never picked up his recommendation letter,” Raven said calmly, and Murphy clenched his jaw. “I know that something went on between you two, but this could really help your career.”

“I don’t want his recommendation letter,” Murphy spat, pushing away from Raven to go grab his keys.

“Mine got me my job. My grades slipped because of all the shit that happened in the past two years, and I know yours did too. My letter from him is what got me my new job,” Raven explained, and Murphy sucked in a breath. He didn’t have the same kind of luck Raven did for finding a job. His grades were a mess and he wasn’t exactly the most likeable person in an interview. “At least read it,” she added in, holding the envelope out for him.

He snatched it out of her hands with a groan, opening it quickly as he sat down on his couch.

_As a member of the State Bar and professor at Arkadian Law School, it is with great pleasure that I write this recommendation on behalf of John Murphy, one of the most determined, passionate, and moving interns I have ever had the pleasure of working with. He is a young man who forges his own path in life, only influenced by his pursuit of justice and equality._

_The more the odds are stacked against Mr. Murphy, the more he fights. In that way, he reminds me a lot of myself. But that is where the resemblance stops, for Mr. Murphy has shown more compassion and virtue in his two years of law school than I have in my entire career. From the first moment he walked in my door, he challenged the very nature of why I do what I do. His passion is what drove me to take on clients that normally would not have been able to afford my services. He reminded me of why I became a lawyer. John Murphy is the kind of lawyer anyone would be lucky to have._

Murphy put the letter down, not sure he could keep reading and still keep a straight face when he saw Kane after graduation.

“It can’t be that bad,” Raven said, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow at him.

“It wasn’t bad at all,” Murphy huffed, pushing himself off the couch. “Come on, we need to go.”

The graduation ceremony went by in a blur. The only moments he could pick out were the ones where he consciously made the effort to smile for Emori’s camera. After caps were tossed, Murphy fought through the crowd to get to where Monty, Emori, Luna, and Raven were gathered. By the time he got there, Marcus Kane had joined them.

“Congratulations,” Kane offered, reaching his hand out. Murphy took it, narrowing his eyes at Kane as he shook his hand.

Kane didn’t stick around long, probably sensing that he wasn’t wanted. And after about a hundred more photos, the five of them all went home.

“Alright, what is your news?” Murphy groaned as soon as they walked into his apartment. Emori shot him a confused look, but he knew better. She had been waiting for her college acceptance letters to come in for weeks now, and he knew she was putting off telling him until after his graduation.

“I don’t have any news,” she lied, and he raised an eyebrow at her. “Okay, I got into all of them,” she confessed, and a huge smile formed on his face. “And don’t you dare say I told you so,” she huffed as she ran toward the kitchen.

“I told you so!” he shouted, and she popped her head back out to glare at him… not that he cared. It was worth it.

He was just so grateful that Emori was finally putting down roots, getting comfortable. If Murphy could just get a damn job, his life would be pretty much perfect.

The two of them went to bed relatively early, tired from the long ceremony and pictures. By the time he woke up the next morning, Emori was already gone for her shift. He stumbled his way into the living room, plopping down on the couch… only to sit right on the letter that Professor Kane had written for him.

“Fuck,” he mumbled, picking it up quickly to smooth it out. He glanced over it again, wondering why he couldn’t get Kane’s words out of his head. Before he knew it, he was getting dressed and walking out the door.

When he got to the Public Defender’s Office, Marcus Kane was the only person there, buried in paperwork.

“Must suck to have to actually do your job,” Murphy muttered, and Kane’s head whipped up. “You don’t have five interns to throw paperwork at anymore.”

“No, I don’t,” Kane sighed, leaning back in his chair. “How are you doing?”

“Fine,” Murphy mumbled, putting his hands in his pockets as he looked down on the ground. He wasn’t sure why he was here, anyway. His legs moved without his consent. He had no plan. There was nothing he had left to say to Kane.

“You read your letter, right?” Kane asked, and Murphy nodded. “What did you think?”

“I think you’re really good with words,” Murphy huffed, and a smirk formed on Kane’s lips.

“I meant them, though. I could have just copied the letter I usually write for my interns,” he replied, crossing his arms as he raised an eyebrow.

“So, did you run out of clients? That how you ended up here?” he asked, looking around the grungy looking room. Murphy didn’t know much about the Public Defender’s Office, but he knew they were all overworked and underpaid.

“I chose to come here,” Kane corrected, and Murphy shot him a skeptical look. “You were right about me. I didn’t want to be a lawyer to help rich murderers go free. I wanted to help people. You reminded me of that, so here I am.”

Murphy snorted as he leaned against the doorframe.

“Why are you here?” Kane asked, raising an eyebrow. “Do you want to yell at me again? Is there anything else you need to get off your chest?” he continued calmly, narrowing his eyes at Murphy.

“I don’t know why I’m here,” Murphy muttered, looking down at his feet. He shouldn’t have come, of course. It wasn’t like Kane ever had the answers Murphy was looking for.

“Do you have a job yet?” Kane sighed, and Murphy shook his head. “Do you want one?”

“I’m not working for you again,” Murphy huffed, and Kane stood up from his desk.

“You wouldn’t be working for me. You would be working your own cases, separate from mine. The most you’ll ever have to interact with me is here in this office during morning meetings. Pay is not great, but it’s better than nothing at all,” Kane explained, and Murphy furrowed his brows as he thought this over.

“Do you like working here?” Murphy had to ask, and Kane nodded.

“I’m exhausted all the time… but I’m giving people with no other options their best chance… and it feels good,” Kane replied, and Murphy pressed his lips together. “The guy who runs this is stepping down in about a month, and I’ve applied to take over. I want to build the Public Defender’s Office up. And I’d be an idiot not to ask for your help.”

“I still don’t forgive you,” Murphy reminded him, and Kane nodded along.

“Don’t expect you to. I made you shoot me,” he teased, and Murphy rolled his eyes. “You start Monday.”

 

_Clarke_

 

“What do you think you’re doing?” Clarke asked, her mouth still full of ice cream. Her mother just rolled her eyes before digging her spoon into the pint of ice cream.

“You spent literally all day talking about this ice cream, and now I’m craving it,” she replied with a smirk as Clarke tried to pull the ice cream away.

“You’re playing a dangerous game, Abby,” Bellamy smirked as he walked in from the kitchen. Clarke raised an eyebrow at him, but his smirk only grew. God, Clarke almost missed the days when the two of them didn’t get along.

“You two act like I can’t share,” Clarke huffed.

“Third trimester Clarke doesn’t share her ice cream. At least not happily,” her mother teased before taking another spoonful.

“Can I have a bite?” Bellamy teased, and Clarke stuck her tongue out at him. “Okay, could I have a bite if I told you that there’s another pint of ice cream in the freezer?” With a grin, Clarke handed her spoon over to him.

The doorbell rang, and her mother sprung up quickly, likely to beat Clarke to it. Bellamy and her mom had been doing that a lot lately to discourage her from getting up if she didn’t have to.

With a sigh, she rested her head onto Bellamy’s shoulder. “How much longer again?” she whispered, and Bellamy pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“Six weeks,” he replied, and Clarke started pouting slightly. As much as she loved how Bellamy had been taking care of her, she also just couldn’t wait to have the baby already. For so long, it had been hard to let herself get excited about the baby. There were just too many ways that everything could go wrong.

But now… everything was settling down. The three of them were comfortable in witness protection. And if the updates from Lincoln were any indication, they would all return home soon. She and Bellamy would stay up late at night whispering in the dark about the baby, getting excited about all the firsts, imagining those first steps and words… they just couldn’t wait to meet their baby girl.

“I know,” he whispered before pressing a quick kiss to her lips. He had this goofy grin on his face, the excited one he would always get when he found a new baby name he liked. She loved how excited he was.

“In six weeks, it’s not just going to be the two of us anymore,” she reminded him, raising her eyebrows.

“I mean, it’s not just the two of us _now_. We’re roommates with your mom,” he teased, and Clarke giggling into his shirt. Then, his hand found her stomach and just rested there.

“You don’t seem to mind since you two keep ganging up on me,” she mumbled, and Bellamy burst out laughing.

“Lincoln is here!” her mother shouted, and the two of them jerked their heads in their direction.

“Shit, I haven’t finished writing Octavia’s letter,” Bellamy realized. Usually when Lincoln came, her mother would give him a letter for Kane and Bellamy would give him a letter for Octavia. An agent would go to each of them to read the letter before disposing of it. She didn’t know who was reading off her mother’s letter to Kane, but she did know that Lincoln was delivering Bellamy’s to Octavia himself… which Clarke found suspicious. Last time, she got a moment alone with him to ask about it and he tried to play it off… but she knew she was onto something.

“You guys aren’t going to need to write anymore letters,” Lincoln said calmly, and Clarke gripped Bellamy’s hand quickly. “It’s time to go home.”

 

_Echo_

 

“How did you get this?” Marcus asked, furrowing his brows at the video in front of him.

“I thought you knew better than to ask that,” she teased, tapping her finger on the time stamp. “But his alibi checks out.”

Marcus leaned back in his chair, smirking at her. Then, his eyes glanced at something behind her before widening. Echo stood herself up, turning around… to see Roan walking into the doorway. Echo started sprinting past desks… hell, she might have accidentally smacked Murphy in the process.

But it really didn’t matter because Roan was anticipating the near tackle that her hug was. As she pulled away, she slapped his shoulder. “It’s been safe for you to come home for a month now,” she snapped, and he rolled his eyes.

“I missed you too,” he groaned, pushing past her to hug Marcus. She let out a breath, feeling a huge grin creep onto her face. It had been months since she last heard from him and she was almost convinced that he wasn’t coming back. “Would have been back sooner, but they reopened the Ontari investigation after one of Clarke’s uncle’s confessions,” he explained, and Echo pressed her lips together. That made sense, of course. If there was any way to prove his involvement, he needed to stay out of the country. She remembered reading yesterday that Ontari was finally declared dead after being missing for this long. Which meant he was finally in the clear.

“Well, here’s what you’ve missed: Murphy works with us now, Bellamy and Clarke are finally back, and I’m thinking about selling the house,” Marcus said, and Roan leaned to the side to look over at Murphy who offered an annoyed wave.

“Now, I’ve seen everything,” he teased, before Echo heard her phone go off. Then, she heard Marcus’ do the same.

They both made their way back over to the desk before Murphy shouted, “Bellamy just texted me. Clarke’s in labor!”

The four of them rushed to the hospital and were met by Abby, Monty, and Raven. There, the seven of them waited impatiently in the waiting room.

Somehow, Echo had ended up sitting alone with Roan… which wasn’t awkward until she thought about how it could be awkward. She hadn’t seen Roan since the night before he fled the country… when they slept together.

It wasn’t like she never thought that would happen. Especially after how they both clung to each other after Marcus got shot. She very vividly remembered the panic in Roan’s voice when he thought Echo could have been in the house that night. Roan and Echo meant the world to each other… so this was kind of inevitable.

But the timing… it could have been better. Like it could have happened literally any other night. But no, they chose the night before they would be separated for months.

“So, how have the others been doing?” Roan asked, keeping his hands firmly in his lap.

“Uh, Raven is doing well. Still with that Luna girl, I think. Monty is getting married soon,” she replied.

“To Harper?”

“Yeah, to Harper,” she said quickly, keeping her eyes forward. “And you know, Bellamy and Clarke are having a baby.”

“Boy or girl?”

“Girl,” she replied, glancing over at Roan who was nodding along, clearly feeling as awkward as she was.

“That’s good,” Roan muttered, looking down at his hands.

“Yeah,” was all Echo could think to say. When a nurse came to all of them to announce they could go see the baby, it was a godsend.

When they all got to Clarke’s room, the baby was wrapped up in Bellamy’s arms and Clarke was resting her head on his shoulder looking down at the baby. They looked _happy_.

“Hey, guys,” Bellamy grinned as they all gathered around the hospital bed. “Meet Diana Blake.”

“Bell, you better give my mom a turn with the baby before she loses it,” Clarke teased, and Echo glanced over at Abby Griffin who looked like she was going to break into a sob as Bellamy slowly handed the baby over to her.

Echo was fourth in line to hold the baby, and was surprised by how small the kid was when she was finally in her arms.

“Hi, I’m your Aunt Echo,” she whispered. “And this is your Uncle Roan. He used to bang your mom.” The room erupted into laughter as Roan groaned beside her.

“You have my baby for all of five seconds and you’re already starting shit,” Clarke huffed, and Echo winked at her.

“Diana should know what kind of family she has,” Echo retorted.

“I feel like _some_ details should be left out,” Bellamy said, and Echo nearly snorted. Yeah, maybe they should leave out the murders that brought them all together… probably not bedtime story material.

“That was more a dig on me than Clarke, though. Echo is still mad at me for being gone for so long,” Roan sighed, leaning forward to poke Echo’s shoulder.

“Yes, I am,” Echo whispered sweetly toward the baby. “Uncle Roan is kind of a dick, remember that.”

“Echo isn’t on our potential babysitter list, right?” Bellamy asked Clarke, and Echo’s head whipped up to look at her.

“Absolutely not,” Clarke deadpanned, and Echo just shrugged.

After everyone got a turn holding the baby, they left so that Clarke and the baby could rest. Before Echo knew it, she was stuck in a car with Roan… alone.

“So, are we going to talk about it?” Roan asked, and Echo kept her eyes on the road.

“Talk about what?” Echo asked before biting her lip.

“Marcus’ new beard, what do you think?” he huffed.

“I really don’t like his new beard,” Echo deflected.

“Pull over,” Roan snapped, and Echo turned into the nearest parking lot.

“If you are just having me pull over so you can argue with me…” Echo groaned as she put the car in park.

“Shut up,” Roan groaned as he leaned across the console and crashed his lips against hers.

 

_Monty_

 

“I can’t believe it’s almost over,” Harper pouted, as Monty pulled his head up to look around the room. He and Harper were still on the dance floor, but were basically the only ones left. Their families had headed home for the night, and there were only a handful of wedding guests who were sticking it out until the end. Marcus Kane stayed as long as he could, but even he got too tired and took off.

“I can. We’ve been in here for three hours, the ceremony took another hour, and I had to spend all morning away from you so I wouldn’t see you in your dress. It’s been a long ass day,” he teased, and Harper rested her head on his shoulder as he spun them around.

“I’m afraid if I sit down I’ll fall asleep,” Harper whispered, and Monty chuckled to himself. He could see Bellamy and Clarke both asleep in the corner, clearly enjoying their first night out since the baby.

“We can go sleep for a little bit. Maybe eat some more cake. God knows we have plenty of it,” he murmured, remembering how few people actually touched the cake. Then again, they made the mistake of having an open bar, so everyone was hitting the alcohol hard instead. Harper lifted her head up to narrow her eyes at him, before rolling them.

“Oh, one of my bridesmaids is about to leave. I’m gonna go say goodbye real quick,” she said, before taking off. With a sigh, Monty started heading over toward where his friends were gathering.

“So, who is going to wake them?” Monty asked, gesturing to Clarke and Bellamy.

“Hold on,” Murphy said, and Monty saw him balling up a piece of napkin. “I’ve got this,” he teased before throwing it directly into Bellamy’s mouth. Within seconds, Bellamy woke up and started coughing it up. His head shot up, scanning the rest of them.

“What the hell?” he snapped, and Clarke sleepily sat up and rubbed her eyes.

“It was Echo,” Murphy lied, and Emori burst out laughing. Then, another balled up piece of napkin smacked Murphy in the face, and Monty turned to see Raven and Luna giggling at each other.

“Have they been like this all night?” Monty asked, turning toward Roan and Echo who both had strange expressions on their face as they thought about how to respond.

“They’re really drunk and don’t want you to know,” Clarke explained, and Monty threw his head back.

“I’m not drunk,” Roan slurred, and Monty took a seat next to Emori.

“Sure, you’re not,” Monty teased. “And Bellamy didn’t fall asleep during the reception.”

“You judging me, Monty?” Bellamy huffed, and Monty raised his eyebrows.

“A little,” he teased, as Harper pulled up a seat and sat down next to him. “But I get it. The newest Blake must be a handful.”

“Takes after her dad,” Clarke mumbled, and Bellamy raised an eyebrow at her.

“Because you are just the most easy-going person here, huh Clarke?” Raven teased, and Bellamy bit his lip to keep his chuckle in. “So, did you two ever settle on a honeymoon?” Raven asked, looking at Harper and Monty.

“We’re opting for a staycation since this wedding wasn’t cheap and we’re both exhausted,” Harper explained as she took Monty’s hand in hers.

“We have a Netflix itinerary and a lot of delivery places on speed dial. It’s going to be great,” Monty smirked.

 

_Roan_

 

“Three bodies,” Echo muttered before downing the rest of her drink.

“Four if we count you, Marcus,” Roan teased, and Marcus threw his head back with a groan. The three of them were sitting on the floor of his empty office. The movers had taken the remaining furniture just hours ago… and it felt weird walking around this house without all the furnishings, without that trophy staring them all in the face, without the second or maybe third rug that Marcus had to replace…

“And those are just the bodies we know of,” Marcus snorted, leaning forward to refill his glass. “I’m really fucking happy I’m moving. I still see Jaha’s corpse whenever I get to the bottom of the stairs.”

“Just think of all the bodies you could stumble onto at Abby’s house,” Echo teased, and Marcus shot her a warning look.

“Nope. We’re done. No more murder. No more dead bodies. No more dragging people out in antique, irreplaceable rugs in the dead of night,” Marcus said, wagging his finger at Echo and swaying. “We’re good people now. Well, you and I are,” he slurred before raising an eyebrow at Roan. “Roan still does the shady shit.”

“The accounts are in my name, that’s it,” he groaned before taking another sip of his drink. It wasn’t as easy to untangle himself from his family as it was for Clarke…

Well, that wasn’t fair. Nothing about that was _easy_. But Roan wasn’t willing to go to the lengths that Clarke went to, especially when he never had it that bad. “And you two still do shady shit.”

“But for good reasons now,” Echo teased, nudging his shoulder with her hand.

“Marcus!” he heard Murphy shout, and Roan raised an eyebrow at Marcus.

“You two on a first name basis now?” he teased.

“I’m not his professor anymore,” Marcus muttered. “In here!”

Murphy walked into the office, looking at each of them skeptically. The three of them probably looked like a mess. They were grown adults sitting on the floor chugging the last of Marcus’ scotch. “I’m beginning to see why this law firm failed,” Murphy teased, and Echo burst out laughing.

“Yeah, it has nothing to do with how many people died in this house,” Roan muttered, and Murphy forced a small chuckle.

“God, we’re all fucked up,” Murphy grumbled, and the three of them rose their glasses and muttered “cheers” since that had become their new drinking game. Anytime anyone pointed out how fucked up they all were now, they took a drink.

“What can I do for you?” Marcus asked with a small grin.

“I was wondering if someone could cover my cases for the first half of next week,” Murphy said, tucking his hands in his pockets.

“Yeah, we got someone new starting on Monday anyway. So, I’ll just assign those to him,” Marcus replied, and Roan raised an eyebrow at Echo. He was never once this lenient in all the years of working out of this house.

“Who is the new guy?” Murphy asked, and Echo started giggling.

“Do you know who it is?” Roan leaned toward her to ask, but she just kept giggling.

“Bellamy, actually,” Marcus explained, and Roan had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing because now he _knew_ what Echo was laughing about.

Murphy shot them a confused look as he moved back toward the door. “Uh, okay. I’ll see you Wednesday, then.”

As soon as the door shut, Roan burst out laughing.

“What is so funny?” Marcus snapped, and Echo threw her head back in laughter.

“It’s just cute that they both wanted to work for their dad,” Roan chuckled, before burying his face into Echo’s shoulder.

“I’m not their dad,” Marcus huffed, which only made him and Echo laugh even more. It had been something the two of them had been joking about for months, ever since Bellamy referred to him as Grandpa Marcus when talking to the new baby. Sure, it had more to do with how Marcus was with Abby now… but Marcus had always been partial to Bellamy and Murphy. He went out of his way for the two of them when he didn’t do that for the others.

“Sure, you’re not,” Echo teased, and Marcus gulped down the rest of his drink. “So, you didn’t go help Bellamy assemble that crib or help move Murphy into his new apartment?”

“Bellamy asked for my help,” Marcus clarified.

“Because you’re his dad?” Roan jumped in, and Marcus hit him on the arm.

“No, because he was stressed out and I just happened to be the person who picked up the phone. And I only helped Murphy because my car has a larger trunk than his,” Marcus huffed, and Echo had a huge shit-eating grin on her face.

“He also checks up on Murphy throughout the day and always knows if Murphy skips his lunch,” Echo teased, and Marcus threw his head back.

“You never once did that with me,” Roan said, pretending to be jealous, and finally, Marcus’ stern expression faltered and he broke into a laugh.

“Okay, maybe I have a soft spot for the two of them,” he finally conceded.

“And to think, one of them shot your friend Thelonious and the other shot you,” Echo snorted, and Roan erupted into laughter. Marcus grabbed the bottle and downed the rest of it as they calmed down.

“First of all, Thelonious was a shitty friend,” Marcus slurred, wagging a finger at both of them. “And I was _literally_ asking to be shot.”

 

_Raven_

 

“Don’t overthink it. Just be like ‘Hey, I love you. Wanna get married?’” Monty suggested, and Raven threw her head back.

“That what you did?” Bellamy asked.

“No,” Raven snapped, and Monty let out a huff. But she had already gotten this story out of Monty over one of their lunch breaks. He’d taken on a consulting position at her new firm, meaning she had already heard his opinion on the proposal issue over and over again. “He literally sprung for the carriage ride in the park, remember?”

“You can steal that idea if you want,” Monty huffed.

“Do Luna and I strike you as a carriage ride in the park kind of couple?” Raven asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Love makes every couple a carriage ride in the park kind of couple, right babe?” Murphy asked, and Emori snorted.

“Okay, I asked you guys to actually fucking help me,” Raven snapped.

“Hey, I helped you pick out the ring. I did my job,” Murphy groaned, and Raven threw a pillow over at him.

“Wait, you helped?” Clarke asked, holding the ring in her hand. “Shit, I’m impressed.”

“I have taste, Clarke,” Murphy huffed, and Raven rolled her eyes. Murphy just shrugged and said it was okay when Raven picked it out.

Raven let out a sigh before moving toward her kitchen. She wasn’t sure why she thought these guys would actually be helpful.

“How are you doing?” Clarke asked, and Raven jumped, not realizing Clarke had followed her.

“Oh, you know. Terrified. She might say no,” Raven muttered, and Clarke cocked her head to the side.

“That girl was with you at your absolute worst. She’s been there for you through it all. She loves you. I don’t think she’s gonna say no,” Clarke replied, crossing her arms. Raven threw her head back. Of course, she knew all that. And it wasn’t like Luna hadn’t dropped hints that she was thinking about it.

“What do I even say to her? How do people just ask that question?” Raven huffed, and Clarke pulled her in for a hug.

“I think they do a little speech about how much they love them and are like ‘hey, want to keep doing this forever?’” Clarke teased, and Raven rested her head against the wall.

“Okay, so… I could start by saying that I love her… that she is the person I want to be with for the rest of my life,” Raven worked through it, but even that didn’t sound right. Literally nothing that ever came out of her mouth sounded wrong. No combination of words could sum up how she felt about Luna.

“That’s really all you need, plus you know, asking her the question,” Clarke offered, but Raven shook her head.

“Raven!” she heard Luna shout, and Raven rushed back into the living room. Luna wasn’t supposed to be home for another few hours. “Hey, did you take off early from work today?” she asked with slight frustration in her voice, as Raven ran across the room to snatch up the ring before Luna saw it. When she glanced back up at her, Luna was whispering something to Bellamy who had a strange look on his face.

“Yeah, just like an hour early. It was a slow day,” Raven explained, as Luna tossed her purse to the side.

“Hey, Clarke, we need to go get Diana from your mom’s,” Bellamy said with a strange look on his face, and Raven raised an eyebrow at him.

“No, we have another hour,” Clarke argued, but Bellamy shot her a look.

“Guys, what’s going on?” Raven snapped, and Clarke looked back at her in complete confusion.

“Nothing. Just something came up and we need to go pick up the baby,” Bellamy said, narrowing his eyes at Clarke, and she let out a huff as she grabbed her jacket. “Also, Monty, we’re driving you home.”

Then, Raven saw Luna whisper something to Murphy, and Raven was getting suspicious.

“Murphy can just drive me,” Monty huffed.

“Nope, Emori and I have to leave too,” Murphy announced as he stood up, and Raven glanced back over at Bellamy suspiciously as he whispered something to Clarke that made her eyes widen.

“Right, we need to go pick up the baby,” Clarke said a little too loudly to Raven, and she let out a groan. The five of them practically sprinted out of Raven and Luna’s apartment, and Raven just raised an eyebrow at Luna.

“Okay, what did you say to get rid of them so quickly?” Raven asked, and Luna pressed her lips together.

“Well, I was going to surprise you when I came to pick you up from your office,” Luna murmured, pinching the bridge of her nose. “But of course, I picked the one day that you took work off early.”

“To do what, exactly?”

“To propose,” Luna chuckled, throwing her head back. Raven’s eyes widened and her jaw went slack.

“Luna,” she whispered, pulling the ring out from behind her back. “I took off work early so I could get everyone’s opinion on how I should ask you.”

“Well, shit,” Luna giggled as she crossed over to Raven. “We’re not really good at this, are we?”

“Nah, we’re just really on the same page and forgot to tell each other, apparently,” Raven laughed before Luna pressed a slow kiss to Raven’s lips.

 

_Bellamy_

 

“How did they not notice?” Bellamy muttered, shaking his head. “Like, how do two people sneak around and make plans to propose to each other and not notice what the other one is doing?”

Clarke threw her head back in a giggle. “They were both too nervous to be paying attention, apparently,” Clarke sighed. They had just dropped Monty off at his apartment and were on their way to Abby’s house.

“I know I say that Emori and Murphy are the cutest, but Raven and Luna might have just beat them,” Bellamy teased. He turned into Abby’s development.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Clarke asked, and Bellamy jerked on his brakes.

“Driving to your mother’s house,” he said, raising his eyebrows at her.

“She’s not expecting us for another hour though…” Clarke replied, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Yeah, but we could pick Diana up early.”

“Bellamy,” Clarke said, and he tried to figure out why Clarke wouldn’t want to pick up the baby immediately.

“ _Oh_ ,” he realized and immediately pulled a U-turn. “Wait, we don’t have time do get all the way back to the apartment,” he realized.

“Turn up here. I know a place,” Clarke smirked, and Bellamy followed her directions until they found themselves in an empty, dark parking lot. He barely got his seatbelt off before Clarke was climbing over the console into his lap.

He groaned into her mouth, as he pushed his seat back. “Want something, princess?” he teased as Clarke’s lips travelled down his neck.

She leaned back with a smirk, pulling her top right over her head. His eyes immediately dropped to her chest. “Yeah, I want something. And I think you do too,” she teased, and Bellamy’s hands were already trying to unhook her bra. His mouth was already sucking and kissing along the exposed skin above her bra, before he finally got the damn thing off and flung it to the side.

“Fuck,” he murmured, before running his tongue alongside her breast. Clarke let out a sweet little whimper as he kissed between her breasts. “You can be as loud as you want to be,” he realized with a grin. This wasn’t like the frantic quickies in the shower once they got Diana down for a nap or the quieted fumbling around once Diana was down for the night. He could really _fuck_ her tonight.

As he glanced up at Clarke, he could see the heated look in her eyes as she made the same realization. Then, she surged forward, claiming his mouth as she pushed him back. His hands lowered to her ass, palming her through her jeans. He ran his tongue along her bottom lip before diving into her mouth, searching desperately for hers.

A whimper escaped as soon as he found her tongue, and Clarke pulled herself even closer to him as she grinded onto his lap.

When Clarke finally pulled away to pull off her jeans, she accidentally bumped her head against the roof of the car. “Baby, you okay?” he asked, and Clarke started giggling and nodding.

“I think we should have sprung for the backseat,” Clarke teased as she awkwardly started shimmying out of her jeans.

“Next time,” he teased, and Clarke shot him a wary look. He held onto her waist as she finally got her jeans off. “Forgetting something?” he teased, looping his fingers into her panties. She rolled her eyes as she started tugging them off, as Bellamy undid his jeans.

“What’s taking you so damn long?” she teased right into his ear as he lifted his hips and tugged his pants and boxers down.

“You distracted me,” he retorted, as Clarke climbed back onto his lap. Her mouth was pressing open mouthed kisses right below his ear, and Bellamy reached between her legs, rubbing her clit slowly. “This wet for me already, huh?” he teased, and Clarke bit down on his skin.

“Yeah, all for you,” she whispered breathlessly, and Bellamy ran his fingers through her hair, tugging her head back a little so he could look at her. “You gonna keep staring at me, or do you wanna make me scream?” she challenged and a groan escaped his lips. Then, her hand slid down and started lazily stroking up and down his cock.

“Tell me what you want from me, princess,” he growled as he leaned forward to capture her lips. He kept his lazy pace on her clit, matching her slow strokes up and down his cock.

“I want your cock, _now_ ,” she said huskily as she started to line herself up with his cock. He bit his lip as he felt the head of his cock brush up against her clit.

He threw his head back with a growl as soon as Clarke sank down on him. The pace was maddeningly slow, but she felt so warm and tight around him. “Fuck,” he murmured before Clarke leaned forward to claim his mouth again. His hands were palming her house, pleading with her to pick up the pace. “Come on, pretty girl. Fuck me,” he pleaded breathlessly, and a sexy little smirk grew on Clarke’s face.

“What’s the magic word?” she moaned quietly, closing her eyes as Bellamy lifted his hips up to meet her.

“Please, princess,” he begged, still thrusting up into her. She leaned forward again, her hair falling in both their faces as she bit down on his bottom lip.

And as soon as she picked up the pace, he was practically clawing her ass as she bit her way down his neck.

“Fuck, I love your cock,” Clarke whimpered, and Bellamy thrust up into her again, earning a small scream.

“Clarke, fuck, I love you. Come here, let me kiss you,” he whispered, and Clarke moaned into his mouth as she cupped his face between her hands.

“Love you too, so fucking much,” Clarke murmured breathlessly before kissing him again.

He could feel her walls start to tighten around him, and he slid his fingers down toward her clit, rubbing it slowly.

“Fuck, Bell,” Clarke whispered into his ear, her hand now gripping his curls.

“Need you to come for me, sweetheart,” he pleaded as Clarke buried her face into his neck. “Come on, princess. You’re so gorgeous when you come for me.”

His fingers sped up as he kept thrusting into her. He could feel Clarke’s labored breaths against his neck.

“Please, pretty girl,” he murmured as he thrust up into her even harder, and a loud moan escaped Clarke’s lips as her arms tightened around her. “That’s it baby. Let go,” he whispered, barely able to hold on himself.

She was tugging desperately at his hair as she growled into his neck. “Bell, oh, Bell,” she moaned as he felt her fall apart… and he couldn’t hold off a second longer.

The two of them stayed like that for a while as they caught their breath, pressing lazy kisses to each other’s cheeks and lips. When Clarke tried to reach for her shirt, Bellamy pulled her back on top of him. “Just a few more minutes,” he murmured, and Clarke rested her head back onto his chest. As eager as he was to take Diana home and get her to bed, he missed his moments like this with Clarke. He didn’t get to hold her as much as he used to, didn’t get to make love to her as much. With time, it would get easier, of course. “I love you so much, Clarke.”

“I love you too, Bell,” Clarke whispered back, tilting her head up to look at him. He tightened his grip around her as he kissed her forehead. This girl had given him the world. He couldn’t imagine his life without her or their beautiful baby.

After a few more minutes, the two of them got themselves back together, before driving to Abby’s house.

When they walked in, Abby and Marcus were asleep on the couch, with a wide-awake Diana snuggling up on Marcus’ chest.

“Did you wear them out, little princess?” he teased as he carefully picked her up. He glanced over at Clarke, who was unfolding a blanket as she smirked at them. “Gonna tuck them in?” he joked, and Clarke started giggling.

She threw the blanket on top of them without disturbing them, before going into the kitchen to grab the baby bag. “Let’s go,” she mouthed, gesturing her head toward the door.

That night, Diana woke up again in the middle of the night crying. He stumbled down the hallway to her room, picking her up from the crib. “Okay, I know you’re not hungry because we just fed you,” he groaned, but she settled down pretty quickly. He turned around, seeing a sleepy Clarke watching them from the doorway.

“She just wants to be held, huh?” Clarke murmured, and he nodded. After a few minutes, he tried setting her back down, but she immediately started crying again.

With a sigh, he carried Diana back to their room where Clarke was already back in bed. “She’s sleeping in our bed tonight,” Bellamy whispered, and Clarke rubbed her eyes. She held her arms out, and Bellamy handed the baby over.

Once he got into bed, he and Clarke got Diana situated between them. “She missed us tonight,” Clarke whispered, and a small smile appeared on Bellamy’s lips.

“You think so?”

“Oh, yeah. Marcus doesn’t have the good stories that you do, anyway,” Clarke teased, and Bellamy winked at her. By now, Diana was gripping onto one of Clarke’s fingers with interest, looking up at her with those wide brown eyes of hers.

He glanced up at Clarke, seeing the small smile on her face as she looked at their baby. Bellamy wasn’t sure what he pictured his future would look like… but this was it. This was what he wanted for the rest of his life. Just him and his beautiful little family. This was all it took to make him the happiest man on earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again, everyone! Love you guys!

**Author's Note:**

> I can't wait to hear the theories, and, as always, hit me up on tumblr (@asroarke)


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